[tei-council] Desktop Roma App?

[Amit Kumar]

> I'd say it was quite important to keep moving in parallel on all  
> fronts.
> The opinion seemed strong that a 100% useable Roma was a prerequisite.

Great then I have my work cut out for me :).

> not sure what a webstart application is, to be honest :-}
>
Java webstart is nothing special, it just allows software to be deployed
over the network and webstart makes sure that users have the most recent
application running.


> the main job of a Roma is to create an ODD customization file, and run
> it through the
> scripts which generate schemas or documentation out the end. Providing
> the user with
> information about what they can do involves accessing the TEI P5  
> source
> (eg to get
> lists of modules, list of attributes for an element etc). So you  
> need a
> local "database"
> of some kind to query. webRoma does this by sending XQuery to an eXist
> database.
> When the build process  starts, that too needs access to the  
> "database"
> (which may just
> be an XML file). The XSLT scripts work by either sending XQuery as
> above, or
> just reading the P5 source as an XML document.
>


eXist or Saxon might be a good alternative, I am inclined to think  
that saxon
will do the job. eXist is more attractive compared to dbXML I can  
embed it inside
the app.

> So Byzantium has to have the equivalent of the eXist database lying
> around, I suggest.
> For the desktop Java app, I have imagined using Sleepycat dbXML, and
> bundling that
> with the app. Since it too accepts XQuery, it should `just work'.
>
> Does this make sense?
>

Thanks; I will keep you all posted about my progress. I will start some
work on this the week after.


Best,
Amit


---------------------------------------------------------
Amit Kumar
Research Programmer
The Graduate School of Library and Information Science
University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign IL, 61820
phone: 217-333-4118 fax: 217-244-3302
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