10.3 article on encoding; new software

Humanist (mccarty@phoenix.Princeton.EDU)
Tue, 7 May 1996 19:32:48 -0400 (EDT)

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 10, No. 3.
Center for Electronic Texts in the Humanities (Princeton/Rutgers)
Information at http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/

[1] From: orlandi@rmcisadu.let.uniroma1.it (33)
Subject: an article on encoding

[2] From: John Unsworth <jmu2m@virginia.edu> (27)
Subject: New software from IATH

--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 7 May 1996 10:56:47 +0100 (BST)
From: orlandi@rmcisadu.let.uniroma1.it
Subject: an article on encoding

The readers of Humanist might be interested in knowing
that I have placed in an html site:

http://rmcisadu.let.uniroma1.it/~orlandi/encod.html

a contribution (in Italian) entitled:

Teoria e prassi della codifica dei manoscritti,

to be published in the Acts of the International Seminar:
Gli Zibaldoni di Boccaccio: Memoria, scrittura, riscrittura
(Firenze 26-28 aprile 1996).

Abstract: In Decembre 1995 Sperberg-McQueen, Lancashire,
Durosau, Burnard, M<u:>ller, and DeRose discussed on Humanist
some important features of the problems concerning the encoding
of texts and the use of SGML and TEI standards:
interpretations necessary for each encoding; correct
represenation of grapheme in electronic environment;
relations between encoding and editorial practices; purposes
of the author in graphically organizing the text;
distinction of types of markup; materiality of the text and
representation of connotations; allography and orthography.

This contribution is an effort to trace a theoretical
structure which may include all such problems and help to
solve them. Such theoretical structure depends on clearing
the semiotic passages through which a text (message) goes
from the author to the (last) reader. To clarify such
passages some concepts are taken into consideration: the
competence of the author and of the encoder; the different
levels of a text: physical, "virtual", ideal; meaning of
features of the text outside the pure sequence of graphemes;
specific features of the electronic representation of the
text; representation vs. substitution.

Encoding cannot be based on the physical appearence of the
text, but on the "virtual" text in the mind of those who have
written it, and should be able to represent each element in the
text contributing to its meaning. The encoder should therefore
propose a complete table of correspondences.

--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 7 May 1996 11:08:32 -0400
From: John Unsworth <jmu2m@virginia.edu>
Subject: New software from IATH

The Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities is pleased to
announce the availability of two new software products, Inote and Mu,
programmed by Mark Ratliff and Dan Ancona, respectively:

Inote is a Java-based program for image annotation; it can be run through
the web or stand-alone (with the Java developer's kit). Demonstrations,
further information, source code, help documents, and an email/hypermail
list for bug reports and developers, are all available at:
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/inote/

MU is a perl-based program that builds fill-out forms for SGML editing,
based on simple templates. It supports lock files (for networked
workgroups), and it is distributed with a TEI-lite template.
Demonstrations, source code, help files, and an email list for bug
reports and developers are available at:
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/mu/

Inote will work on any platform that supports Java (Windows95/NT and most
Unix platforms, but not Windows 3.1, and only to a limited extent on
Macs). Mu will work with any browser that supports fill-out forms, but
the main program needs to be installed on machine that runs Perl (Unix
Web servers, and some other platforms). If your web server is configured
to permit cgi in user directories, you will not need root/supervisor
access to install MU.

Please download these programs, experiment with them, and report your
experiences to their respective email discussion lists. We will be
releasing future versions of both packages, so your feedback,
suggestions, and contributions are welcome.

John Unsworth
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.village.virginia.edu/~jmu2m/ jmu2m@virginia.edu