[osis-core] Reference to entire work?

[Patrick Durusau]

Todd,

Just a question at this point on the exchange about pointing to an 
entire work.

Assuming that the osisRef is bound to a <work> element in the header, 
which could (would need to add probably) a statement about its internal 
reference system, I am not certain I understand the issue about 
"pointing to the entire work?"

If Bible.KJV:Gen.1.1 is pointing at the first verse of the first chapter 
of Genesis in the King James Version of the Bible,

why isn't: Bible.KJV pointing to the work as a whole? (Leaving aside for 
the moment Harry's question about short aliases to works, although I 
think it works there as well).

Am I missing something special about references to entire works? 
Admittedly, you might want to have a reference to a specific 
translation, but the details of that would be in the <work> element and 
need not appear in the string that is used to link to that entry.

Patrick

Todd Tillinghast wrote:

>>At 11:14 AM -0600 08/21/02, Todd Tillinghast wrote:
>>
>>>Currenly we have a nice mechanism to point to a reference within a
>>>
>work
>
>>>but not to an entire work or reference system.
>>>
>>><reference osisRef="Bible.KJV(Bible.TEV)"/> is invalid.
>>>
>>That is kind of tacky, isn't it?
>>
>
>With out this sort of syntax we have no way of optionally saying that I
>mean this reference identifier in this reference system in this
>translation.  This is a necessary behavior.  There have been alternate
>syntaxes thrown around over the past year but this seems to make the
>most sense.
>
>We did have the work follow the rest of the reference at one point.
>
>What about this seems tacky?  Do you have any alternate suggestions?
>
>Naturally an aliasing mechanism would make things look simpler, but I
>think that would just complicate things for now.
>
>>>
>>>But <reference osisRef="Bible.TEV:Gen"/> is valid.
>>>
>>>If we change the regex to no have a ":" then we have no way to
>>>distinquish between a reference to an entire work or reference system
>>>and a reference that is defaulting the reference system.  We could
>>>
>allow
>
>>>the following:
>>>
>>><reference osisRef="Bible.KJV(Bible.TEV):"/>
>>>
>>>One ugly thing is that the reference system is not needed when
>>>
>referring
>
>>>to the entire work.
>>>
>>True; I could live with that and the extraneous-seeming colon,
>>though; this seems a rare enough case that it can get away with being
>>a little ugly.
>>
>
>If we are going to do this we need to adjust the regex accordingly.
>
>>>Do we need a <workReference> element?  It is tempting to add another
>>>attribute to <reference> named osisWorkRef but then both attributes
>>>would be optional.  I would rather see another element and have the
>>>attributes be required.
>>>
>>>Todd
>>>
>>
>>--
>>
>>Steve DeRose -- http://www.stg.brown.edu/~sjd
>>Chair, Bible Technologies Group -- http://www.bibletechnologies.net
>>Email: sderose@speakeasy.net
>>Backup email: sjd@stg.brown.edu
>>
>
>Todd
>

-- 
Patrick Durusau
Director of Research and Development
Society of Biblical Literature
pdurusau@emory.edu