[osis-core] <hi> types

[Patrick Durusau]

Harry,

Harry Plantinga wrote:
>>I am concerned that encoders using would use the presentation 
>>related elements RATHER THAN other elements.  (Ex <hi 
>>type='smallCaps'>Lord</hi> rather than <divineName 
>>type='yhwh'>Lord</divineName>, etc...)
>>
>>I do see a need for <hi> in non-Biblical texts.  If as Chris 
>>suggests we use <hi> to encode meaning and not presentation 
>>we will be better off. I would like to say away from type 
>>values of bold, italics, etc... in favor of strongEmphasis, 
>>emphasis, etc...  I don't have a good suggestions for a 
>>comprehensive set of a type values.  
> 
> 
> I've seen this debate many times before and usually it is not
> settled to everyone's satisfaction. However, it is clear that
> there are times when italics, bold, etc. will be present in 
> a text and will not be representable in any OSIS markup apart
> from something like <hi type="bold">.
> 
Say its not so, Harry! ;-)

> It is also clear to me that 95% of the time encoders are going
> to be unwilling to go through an old book and figure out
> what each instance of italicized text means when there is
> <hi type="italics"> available that meets 95% of people's usage
> needs.
> 
> That is, everyone has a threshhold at which they say "I just
> mean italics, darnit!" but if italics is an available markup
> option, it'll be used much more than some will find desirable.
> 
> But if there is no way of marking some text as 'italics', 
> OSIS will not be usable for quick-and-dirty conversion of
> texts from one markup to another -- only for very laborious,
> hand-tuned markup. If that's what you want, go for it!
> 

I think Harry has the right of it, reluctantly, but I do. Getting large 
amounts of texts into some semblance of reasonable markup is difficult 
enough without insisting on practices that most encoders either aren't 
capable of following or won't. At best the material is unmarked 
altogether, at worse they don't use the markup system at all.

I would go with Chris's suggestion of common names, such as italic, 
bold, etc., (yea, verily, presentation language) rather than less 
intuitive alternatives.

Actually we could begin to build NLP software with knowledge bases of 
terms, names, etc., that would allow some automated upgrading of less 
complex encoding.

Hope everyone is having a great day!

Patrick

> -Harry
> 
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-- 
Patrick Durusau
Director of Research and Development
Society of Biblical Literature
Patrick.Durusau@sbl-site.org
Chair, V1 - Text Processing: Office and Publishing Systems Interface
Co-Editor, ISO 13250, Topic Maps -- Reference Model

Topic Maps: Human, not artificial, intelligence at work!