[sword-devel] Poetry & prose

Sun, 12 Jan 2003 08:17:47 +1000

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At 01:04 11-01-03 -0700, Chris Little wrote:
>On Sat, 11 Jan 2003, Rev. Michael Paul Johnson wrote:
>
>> At 10:39 10-01-03 -0700, Chris Little wrote:
>> >OSIS handles everything on Michael's list, though some items are not 
>> >addressed specifically (such as poetry/prose formatting, which would be 
>> >done with style sheets).
>> 
>> Poetry/prose formatting cannot be done properly just with style sheets.
>> To accurately represent a translation like the WEB or NIV that presents
>> text in poetry and prose format, you must be able to mark every section
>> as poetry or prose. In prose, you must mark paragraphs, and in poetry,
>> you also need to be able to distinguish between initial and subsequent
>> verses of poetry line sets. In GBF, this is done with <Pp>, <PP>, <CM>,
>> and <CL> tags. In XSEM, this is done with <p>, <linegroup>, and <line>
>> tags. In SIL SF, this is done with \p, \q, and \q2 tags. I am
>> disappointed that so many Bible study software packages simply discard
>> this information. The result is ugly poetry that often looks like it has
>> many capitalization errors in it.
>
>Okay, OSIS does address "formatting" to this extent, but these aren't 
>display formatting, strictly speaking, but marking of text units.  OSIS 
>has <p>, <lg>, and <l> tags corresponding to <p>, <linegroup>, and <line> 
>from XSEM.  However, <lg>/<l> may be used in marking either poetic lines 
>or orthographic lines.

What do you mean "orthographic lines"? Why are they not distinguished from poetry lines?

It sounds like OSIS may be adequate for simple Bible texts, anyway, in that it can mark the logical structure of poetry and prose. I'll take a closer look at it.

>Display formatting details, such as alignment, indentation, spacing 
>between lines/paragraphs, etc. would all need to be handled with 
>stylesheets using attributes such as type in OSIS.  This includes marking 
>different types of lines to define their degree or type of indentation.

It is a good thing to separate the details of display from the logical structure of the text. This makes it easier to adapt the same text to different display devices and column widths. My concern is that the logical structure of the text not be oversimplified, losing information necessary to do the proper formatting.

Rev. Michael Paul Johnson
Servant of Jesus Christ
mpj@eBible.org
http://eBible.org/mpj/

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<html>
At 01:04 11-01-03 -0700, Chris Little wrote: 
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>On Sat, 11 Jan 2003, Rev. Michael
Paul Johnson wrote: 
&gt; At 10:39 10-01-03 -0700, Chris Little wrote: 
&gt; &gt;OSIS handles everything on Michael's list, though some items are
not 
&gt; &gt;addressed specifically (such as poetry/prose formatting, which
would be 
&gt; &gt;done with style sheets). 
&gt; 
&gt; Poetry/prose formatting cannot be done properly just with style
sheets. 
&gt; To accurately represent a translation like the WEB or NIV that
presents 
&gt; text in poetry and prose format, you must be able to mark every
section 
&gt; as poetry or prose. In prose, you must mark paragraphs, and in
poetry, 
&gt; you also need to be able to distinguish between initial and
subsequent 
&gt; verses of poetry line sets. In GBF, this is done with &lt;Pp&gt;,
&lt;PP&gt;, &lt;CM&gt;, 
&gt; and &lt;CL&gt; tags. In XSEM, this is done with &lt;p&gt;,
&lt;linegroup&gt;, and &lt;line&gt; 
&gt; tags. In SIL SF, this is done with \p, \q, and \q2 tags. I am 
&gt; disappointed that so many Bible study software packages simply
discard 
&gt; this information. The result is ugly poetry that often looks like it
has 
&gt; many capitalization errors in it. 
Okay, OSIS does address &quot;formatting&quot; to this extent, but these
aren't 
display formatting, strictly speaking, but marking of text units.&nbsp;
OSIS 
has &lt;p&gt;, &lt;lg&gt;, and &lt;l&gt; tags corresponding to &lt;p&gt;,
&lt;linegroup&gt;, and &lt;line&gt; 
from XSEM.&nbsp; However, &lt;lg&gt;/&lt;l&gt; may be used in marking
either poetic lines 
or orthographic lines.</blockquote> 
What do you mean &quot;orthographic lines&quot;? Why are they not
distinguished from poetry lines? 
It sounds like OSIS may be adequate for simple Bible texts, anyway, in
that it can mark the logical structure of poetry and prose. I'll take a
closer look at it. 
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>Display formatting
details, such as alignment, indentation, spacing 
between lines/paragraphs, etc. would all need to be handled with 
stylesheets using attributes such as type in OSIS.&nbsp; This includes
marking 
different types of lines to define their degree or type of
indentation.</blockquote> 
It is a good thing to separate the details of display from the logical
structure of the text. This makes it easier to adapt the same text to
different display devices and column widths. My concern is that the
logical structure of the text not be oversimplified, losing information
necessary to do the proper formatting. 
 
<x-sigsep></x-sigsep>
Rev. Michael Paul Johnson 
Servant of Jesus Christ 
mpj@eBible.org 
<a href="http://ebible.org/mpj/" eudora="autourl">http://eBible.org/mpj/ 
</a></html>

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