Agenda - May meeting: Multilingual markup?

[Alejandro Bia]

Dear members,

I have a new issue I'd like to propose to the Council for consideration: 
TEI multilingual markup.

At the Miguel de Cervantes DL we performed some tests and developed some 
tools to try the usefulness of using markup of one's own language, but 
without distancing from the TEI standard.

I'd like to defend the benefits of using multilingual markup schemes, like 
the reduction of markup times, markup errors, and most noticeably the 
reduction of learning times due to using markup tags in one's own language.

We have translated TEI element names, attribute names and attribute values 
(only for defaulted or enumerated values) to Spanish and partially to 
French. We have also developed an XML translation map, and the parsers and 
programs to automatically translate markup (this includes XML documents, 
DTDs and Schemas) from and to the "good old" English TEI. This may allow 
encoders to tag using mnemonic names in their own language, but easily 
translate the document to the core TEI standard.

In this way, existent tools like XSLT transforms need not be modified since 
the document to be processed can be automatically converted to standard 
English TEI before applying the transform.
Interchangeability is not affected (in fact it benefits), since both 
documents and DTD/Schemas can be automatically transformed to any target 
language (whose translation is provided in the translation map).

I also see many strategic advantages in the development of multilingual 
parallel sets of names for TEI, like spreading the use of TEI into non 
English speaking countries, preventing the need to develop custom-designed 
vocabularies to solve problems that could be perfectly handled using TEI, 
and hence favouring the use of standards like TEI, with all the advantages 
of having institutional and user's support and being able to use existent 
tools.

In the tests performed at the MCDL, we just solved the problem for Spanish 
and for "resolved" or "compiled" DTDs without extensions (teixlite like). 
The little we did with French was just to demonstrate the multi-language 
capabilities of the solution. The results were promising and the 
implementation was easier that may be thought.

What I'd like to propose is to tackle the problem within the TEI, and 
develop a complete solution that includes support for several languages and 
integration of language choices for DTDs/Schemas generated by the Pizza 
Chef. The translation and further maintenance of the sets of names in 
several languages can be done by TEI member institutions of the 
corresponding languages (e.g. the Cervantes DL could do so for Spanish).

What do you think?

Al the best,
Alex.-

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At 12:19 12/05/2003 -0400, John Unsworth wrote:
>Folks,
>
>I have a detailed draft agenda for the meeting later this week at:
>
>http://www.iath.virginia.edu/~jmu2m/mirrored/tei-c.agenda.html
>
>or if you prefer tei, at
>
>http://www.iath.virginia.edu/~jmu2m/mirrored/tei-c.agenda.xml
>
>Please have a look and let me know if you want changes prior to the 
>meeting (items missing, items that should be removed, more time, less 
>time, who me? etc.).  As it stands, the following people have something to 
>do on that agenda:
>
>Alex Bia
>Lou Burnard
>Matthew Driscoll
>David Durand
>Sebastian Rahtz
>John Unsworth
>Christian Wittern
>
>It would be especially helpful if David Durand and Matthew Driscoll could 
>recommend in advance specific documents for council members to read, if 
>doing so would save us time in the meeting.  Christian and Sebastian have 
>already assigned reading; on the other items, I think it's probably not 
>necessary or not available.
>
>John

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ALEJANDRO G. BIA-PLATAS
e-mail: alex.bia at ua.es

Trabajo:
   Subdirector de Investigación Informática
   Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes
   Universidad de Alicante (Edificio de Institutos)
   Apdo. de correos 99, E-03080, Alicante, SPAIN
   Tel: 34-96-590 9567     Fax: 34-96-590 9477
   http://cervantesvirtual.com/
   http://cervantesvirtual.com/research/articles/

Docencia:
   Departamento de Lenguajes y Sistemas Informáticos (DLSI)
   Universidad de Alicante (Politécnica 4)
   Apdo. de correos 99, E-03080, Alicante, SPAIN
   http://www.dlsi.ua.es/
   abia at dlsi.ua.es

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