[osis-core] Segmenation.

[Patrick Durusau]

Todd,

I am not at all sure I understand the proposal but I will attempt to say 
it back to you to see if I can get even close. ;-)

What you are proposing is that we have attributes on elements (roles, 
which I find confusing from my work on topicmaps but may be clear as a 
bell to everyone else) that carry information about a common container 
element for biblical text?

In other words, in cases where segmentation might be markup heavy, that 
we use the attributes to assemble verses from several elements?

To take Troy's case:

<verse id="Troy.1.1">Then God said, <q verseID="Troy.1.1">Say to my 
people: <q verseID="Troy.1.1" id="q1">Thus says the LORD</q>, <q 
verseID="Troy.1.1" id="q2">Repent!</q><q verseID="Troy.1.2" 
prev="q2">You backsliding markup authors.</q> <q verseID="Troy.1.2"  
id="q3" next="q4">How often have I desired to give you a good 
markup.</q><q verseID="Troy.1.3" prev="q3> But you were 
unwilling.</q></q> </verse>

Or in text:

Then God said, "Say to my people: 'Thus says the LORD, "Repent! 2. You 
backsliding markup authors."
    How often have I desired to give you a good markup. 3. But you were 
unwilling.

Question:  How do  I contain the part: Then God said... here I have just 
opted for adding a verse close, but that does not seem very elegant. 
Otherwise looks fairly crafty to me! (I actually had to work it out by 
hand to get this far.)

BTW, Troy's example was fairly interesting! ;-)  I was working through 
it before I realized what it was saying. That a "close reading" of the 
text as the academics would say. ;-)

Comments?

Patrick




Todd Tillinghast wrote:

>There are several types/classes of hierarchies that could be segmented
>using our schema.  Stepping back and looking at the big picture, it
>seems to me that we need to determine which types/classes of hierarchies
>can be segmented and which elements within each logical hierarchy can be
>segmented.
>
>Assuming that there can be more than one hierarchy segmented
>simultaneously there needs to be clear guidelines that detail which
>elements go together to reconstitute the logical elements that were
>originally segmented.  And it would be helpful to there were "best
>practices" regarding the identifiers used for xxxID, next, and previous
>attributes of the segmented elements.
>
>The trickiest piece seems to be lowest level container of "actual"
>scripture text.  If we say that "actual" scripture text must always be
>directly contained by <verse> (or within <abbr>, <foreign>,
><inscription>, <name>, or a simple <q> contained within <verse>) then
><verse> elements will ALWAYS hold the identifiers that allow us to
>reconstitute "pure" verses that were segmented.  However, as it stands
>it is POSSIBLE and even NATURAL to encode "actual" scripture text in
><lineGroup>/<line>, <q>, <list>/<item>, <p>, and <blockQuote> with out
>any <verse> elements at all (or with a mixture including some <verse>
>elements).
>
>If we identify a "role" for elements that is "lowest level container of
>'actual' scripture", then when reconstituting the text into logical
>verses, elements acting in this "role" could be identified INDEPENANT of
>their element name.  This would allow any of element acting in this
>"role" to act the same as a <verse> element for the purpose of
>identification.  In fact that is what we have said we would like to do
>with <p> when it is exactly one verse.  This would eliminate the COMMON
>cases where you see.
>
><line><verse verseID="...">...</verse></line>
>and 
><p><verse verseID="...">...</verse></p>
>
>replace them with
><line verseID="...">...</line>
>and 
><p verseID="...">...</p>
>
>but does not prevent
><p>
>	<verse verseID="a">...</verse>
>	<verse verseID="b">...</verse>
>	<verse verseID="c">...</verse>
>	<verse verseID="d">...</verse>
></p>
>
>This does not PRECLUDE the more complicated cases where there are
>multiple hierarchies segmented simultaneously.
>
><p pID="s" next="t">
>	<verse verseID="x">...</verse>
>	<verse verseID="a" verseNext="b">...</verse>
></p>
><p pID="t" prev="s" verseID="b" versePrev="a">...</p>
>
>For an element to take on this proposed "role" they would simple assign
>a value to their "verseID" attribute and the appropriate "verseNext" and
>"versePrev" attributes.  If the same element were segmented through
>their participation in another logical hierarchy then the element
>specific xID attribute and next/prev attributes would be assigned
>appropriate values.
>
>SUMMARY:  There are a lot of elements that naturally take on the "role"
>of "lowest level container of 'actual' scripture".  In order to simplify
>allow a discrete set of elements to all perform the same role as
><verse>.  When reconstituting, simply go to the next element with an
>attribute verseID with a value equal to the current nodes verseNext and
>a versePrev with a value that matches the current nodes verseID.  Other
>segmentation would require the element name to be the same as it other
>parts.  (This makes a special case out of <verse> which simplifies
>encoding and element construction.)
>
>PROPOSAL:  Create an abstract type that defines the attributes and
>possible child elements of an element acting in the proposed "role".
>Derive all elements that can act in this role from this element. 
>
>Todd
>
>

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