[sword-devel] OSIS 2.0.1 modules available

[Chris Little]

Michael Paul Johnson wrote:
> American Standard Version http://eBible.org/asv/asvosis.zip
> God's Living Word http://eBible.org/glw/glwosis.zip
> Hebrew Names Version http://eBible.org/hnv/hnvosis.zip
> King James Version http://eBible.org/kjv/kjvosis.zip
> Melanesian Pidgin http://eBible.org/pdg/TokPisinOSIS.zip
> World English Bible http://eBible.org/web/webosis.zip

Looks good.  I saw just a few issues that need some correction.  The 
most important is that <verse> eID's need a value matching the preceding 
sID on another <verse> element.  I think this is the only issue that 
actually violates the spec.

Aside from that:
The book <div> elements should have an osisID attribute where you used 
scope.
The code for English is "en".  You can use "ENG" in the <language 
type="SIL"> element, however.  (This isn't yet clear from the manual, of 
course, but I expect the final version of the manual will cover this 
area adequately.)

Various other issues, like the format of the <identifier type="OSIS">, 
are in flux, and will probably be defined in OSIS 2.1 or the final 
manual.  (My current best guess at the value 
"Bible.en.Rainbow_Ministries.WEB.2004-01-22".)

> If you care to alter the <q> marker and quote marks to strictly comply 
> with the OSIS 2 documentation, then you face the following 
> difficulties:
> 
> 1. You MUST provide additional information outside of the OSIS 
> standard to the users of OSIS text that allows the punctuation to be 
> EXACTLY recreated as in the original text. The rules of this 
> recreation and the exact markers used are different for different 
> languages, different dialects, and even for different translations 
> within the same dialect. They aren't even the same for all of the 
> texts above. If you use the <q> marks in the KJV to generate red text, 
> that is OK, but if you generate quotation marks, you are changing the 
> text. The KJV has no quotation marks, nor does the ASV.

I was sympathetic with this position, since it really does make 
conversion from other formats easier, but using <q> is undeniably better.

It is true that different language, dialects, and translations use 
different standards of placing quotation marks.  However, there are also 
plenty of instances when the SAME translation demonstrates different 
standards of placing quotation marks, depending on locale, paragraphing, 
and contemporary standards.  This is part of why OSIS requires marking 
with <q> rather than typographic quotation marks.  (Another benefit is 
the potential for more richly tagged text, with speaker information.)

For example....  Neighboring Francophone and Anglophone regions may 
allow use of a single vernacular translation, but would still need to be 
printed in two editions, using French and English quotation mark 
standards, respectively.  Translations may be rendered as paragraph or 
in verse-per-line format, and will require different numbers of 
continuation quotation marks, depending on this rendering.  And 
quotation mark standards for the KJV will vary, depending on whether you 
are rendering a facsimile of the original, a modern UK edition, or a 
modern US edition.

> 2. If you scan a new Bible text that has correct quotation marks, you 
> probably won't be able to fully automate conversion from those marks 
> to <q> markup.
> 
> 3. If you fail in doing 1 or 2, above, you may be in violation of 
> copyright, trademark, and/or common law. Worse yet, you shift 
> responsibility before God from the translators to yourself for the 
> accurate transmission of His Word.

Copyright, trademark, common law, aren't involved, though contract law 
might be (depending on your contract).  Suggesting that you will somehow 
have "responsibility before God" (unless you're intentionally rendering 
incorrectly) would be pretty ridiculous and implies that every 
typesetter or translator who ever made a mistake while working on a 
Bible (probably all of them) will be held responsible for those acts.

> The OSIS spec should be changed to allow separation of quotation mark 
> generation markers from words of Jesus markers.

We probably won't ever see that, precisely because there already exists 
a way to express this.

There also probably won't ever be anything akin to a note start anchor, 
since it can already be expressed.  The first verse of the WEB reads:

<verse sID="Gen.1.1" osisID="Gen.1.1" />In the beginning <milestone 
type="x-noteStartAnchor" />God<note type="translation">After “God,” the 
Hebrew has the two letters “Aleph Tav” (the first and last letters of 
the Hebrew alphabet) as a grammatical marker.</note> created the heavens 
and the earth.<verse eID="Gen.1.1" />

and could instead be encoded with a <catchWord> to indicate the annotant 
of the <note>:

<verse sID="Gen.1.1" osisID="Gen.1.1" />In the beginning God<note 
type="translation"><catchWord>God</catchWord> After “God,” the Hebrew 
has the two letters “Aleph Tav” (the first and last letters of the 
Hebrew alphabet) as a grammatical marker.</note> created the heavens and 
the earth.<verse eID="Gen.1.1" />

or with an osisRef with a grain, to explicitly define the range of the 
annotant:

<verse sID="Gen.1.1" osisID="Gen.1.1" />In the beginning God<note 
osisRef="Gen.1.1@s[G]-Gen.1.1@s[d]" type="translation">After “God,” the 
Hebrew has the two letters “Aleph Tav” (the first and last letters of 
the Hebrew alphabet) as a grammatical marker.</note> created the heavens 
and the earth.<verse eID="Gen.1.1" />

or:

<verse sID="Gen.1.1" osisID="Gen.1.1" />In the beginning God<note 
osisRef="Gen.1.1@c[18]-Gen.1.1@c[20]" type="translation">After “God,” 
the Hebrew has the two letters “Aleph Tav” (the first and last letters 
of the Hebrew alphabet) as a grammatical marker.</note> created the 
heavens and the earth.<verse eID="Gen.1.1" />

(The first grain example uses the string matching grain, the second uses 
character counting.  These should be detailed in the manual.  If not... 
they will be in the final. :)

--Chris