[tei-council] rendition, rend, and style

[John A. Walsh]

David,

I agree about the descriptive vs. presentational issue...but the  
stylesheets you mention often need triggers in the TEI source, and  
they @rend attribute is often the trigger one uses.  Also, since we  
have an @rend attribute, it would seem useful to provide a standard  
mechanism for documenting how that attribute is used and defining the  
meaning of its content. @rend="big" could mean lots of things, but if  
it points to <rendition xml:id="big">font-family: Granjon; font-size:  
16pt; font-weight: bold</rendition>, then one has a clear idea of  
what @rend="big" means, and this rendition definition may well refer  
to the source text, not any output format.  A stylesheet can still  
take the "big" trigger and do something else with it.  The Guidelines  
do already state that the content of rendition may be "expressed in  
running prose, or in some more formal language such as CSS."

John
--
| John A. Walsh
| Assistant Professor, School of Library and Information Science
| Indiana University, 1320 East Tenth Street, Bloomington, IN 47405
| www: <http://www.slis.indiana.edu/faculty/jawalsh/>
| Voice:812-856-0707 Fax:812-856-2062 <mailto:jawalsh at indiana.edu>


On May 9, 2007, at 8:01 AM, David J Birnbaum wrote:

> Dear John,
>
> Option C, please. XML isn't Microsoft Word and TEI markup should be  
> descriptive, rather than presentational. The ability to specify  
> output rendering is often very important to projects, but the place  
> to declare it is the stylesheet, not the document instance.
>
> Best,
>
> David
>
> John A. Walsh wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I'm supposed to write up my thoughts on proposed changes to  
>> <rendition> and @rend, including the possible addition of an  
>> @style attribute.
>>
>> The current P5 guidelines state that @rend "indicates how the  
>> element in question was rendered or presented in the source  
>> text."  But my sense is that in practice @rend is used both to  
>> indicate how an element was rendered in the source text and/or how  
>> it should be rendered in a display environment such as a Web  
>> browser or printed output.
>>
>> The addition of @style could be used to distinguish between  
>> rendering in the source text (@rend) and rendering in an output  
>> format (@style). *OR* the addition of @style could be used to  
>> provided the @class/@style functionality of HTML.  @rend (like  
>> @class) could refer to predefined style classes, which could be  
>> defined in the <rendition> element of the TEI Header.  @style  
>> could be used to embed style information directly in an element.
>>
>> If we simply want to distinguish between source rendering and  
>> output rendering with the addition of an @style attribute, then my  
>> task is easy.
>>
>> If on the other hand we want to provide the @class/@style  
>> functionality of HTML, the task is more difficult and would  
>> involve prescribing or recommending practice that is not common at  
>> the moment, and would also likely involve changes to the  
>> <rendition> element and perhaps a new element in <encodingDesc>  
>> where folks could explain their implementation. For instance,  
>> users may define their styles using CSS, XSL-FO, rendition  
>> ladders, or some other mechanism, and this will need to be  
>> explained in <encodingDesc>.
>>
>> I believe we touched on all these various distinctions in Berlin,  
>> so I would like members of the council to weigh in on which way to  
>> go with this.  Please select A. or B. (or a new letter and  
>> proposal of your own invention):
>>
>> A. @rend/@style should distinguish between source rendering and  
>> output rendering.
>>
>> B. @rend/@style should distinguish between HTML-like @class  
>> functionality and HTML-like @style functionality.
>>
>> Incidentally, if we go with B. and style classes are defined in  
>> <rendition> elements of the TEI Header, then we could add an  
>> attribute to <rendition> that indicates whether the "target" of  
>> this rendition "class" is the source text or the output format.   
>> The @style attribute would remain ambiguous in terms of source/ 
>> output, but this ambiguity could be addressed and clarified in the  
>> <encodingDesc>.
>>
>> Once I hear back from others on the Council, I'll proceed with a  
>> more formal document on this topic.
>>
>> John
>> -- 
>> | John A. Walsh
>> | Assistant Professor, School of Library and Information Science
>> | Indiana University, 1320 East Tenth Street, Bloomington, IN 47405
>> | www: <http://www.slis.indiana.edu/faculty/jawalsh/>
>> | Voice:812-856-0707 Fax:812-856-2062 <mailto:jawalsh at indiana.edu>
>>
>>
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