nag re: NEH TEI Consortium interim performance report

[Lou Burnard]

This is a much more difficult question to answer.

As far as developing a test suite is concerned: what exactly would the 
suite test? and how? The concept of "TEI conformance" is a major 
theoretical nightmare, as a quick search on the TEI mailing list will show: 
at one extreme all you can do about conformance is check for syntactic 
validity and the absence of too much blatant tag abuse. At the other, 
within a given project, you can say we will ONLY use <div>s and the 
following elements are restricted in the following ways...

Validation is all about checking that something is fit for a specific 
purpose, but the whole point of TEI tagging is to make things fit for 
multiple purposes. Come to think of it, I have just written a paper on this 
very subject (tho in the context of language corpora) which you are very 
welcome to steal from: http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/rts/elra/D1.html (and .xml)

If something along those lines is needed for the TEI in general I think we 
need to address it more widely than within the Migration wg, so I am 
copying your enquiry and this reply to the TEI Council for comment. The 
library project which Perry et al are getting underway would undoubtedly 
have views on the issue.

<p>At 15:23 06/08/2003, you wrote:
>Dear Lou,
>
>I sent you a note a couple of weeks ago asking about work on the NEH TEI 
>grant. I've been detailed to help write the interim performance report for 
>the NEH TEI grant, and I'm trying to gather up information about various 
>parts of the grant.
>
>John sent me the workplan and the status of each of these five goals:
>
>Year 1:
>1. Redo guidelines in XML. Done
>2. Develop XSL tools for producing XML and SGML DTDs as well as the 
>guidelines themselves, replacing P1 Snobol tools. Done: rewrote Pizza 
>Chef, edited guideline stylesheets to produce HTML and PDF.
>3. Revise guidelines to talk about XML (not just SGML) throughout. Done.
>
>Year 2:
>4. Task force for converting legacy TEI data from SGML to XML. In progress.
>5. Develop specifications for software tools, including a testing suite 
>for minimal TEI conformance, in response to the task force's work. ???
>
>John wasn't entirely sure about item 5 and said that I should check with 
>you. I know that the task force has addressed conversion tools, but I 
>don't think that I know about tools that check formance (at least beyond 
>the parsing and validation features that are part of the conversion 
>tools). Has this issue been addressed yet or is it tabled until later?
>
>Thanks!
>Sarah
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Sarah Wells
>Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities
>spw4s at virginia.edu    434-924-4527
>
>O proud left foot, that ventures quick within
>Then soon upon a backward journey lithe.
>Anon, once more the gesture, then begin:
>Command sinistral pedestal to writhe.
>Commence thou then the fervid Hokey-Poke,
>A mad gyration, hips in wanton swirl.
>To spin! A wilde release from Heavens yoke.
>Blessed dervish! Surely canst go, girl.
>The Hoke, the poke -- banish now thy doubt
>Verily, I say, 'tis what it's all about.
>
>(Stolen from the Washington Post's Style Invitational Week CLXI
>by Jeff Brechlin, Potomac Falls)
>
></x-flowed>