[sword-devel] Getting stuff done (Re: External links)

[Matthew Talbert]

> The point I was making was not that you can't encode it, but you lose the
> semantic significance of it. The user can tell that <i>test</i> was added,
> but the program can't - unless that is the only way <i> is ever used - which
> it isn't. If you use italic formatting for anything else, you have lost
> information - not presentation information - but the actual meaning is now
> inaccessible to the program, as it can't necessarily tell what a particular
> <i> means. If I want to mark translator added words in violet, or even allow
> omitting them altogether, this is now not easily possible.

I've been around long enough to know there is some disagreement here,
but not long enough to really understand the issues. So my question
isn't intended to create an argument, I just want to understand.

If encoding in OSIS means that presentation information intended to be
there by the publisher is lost, then why is that the preferred format?
I would think that it would be really important to a publisher (or
just to a module creator like me) that things are presented as they
want them to be. Are you saying OSIS doesn't really allow that? If so,
then shouldn't something else be used?

Matthew