[tei-council] tei stemma model

[David J Birnbaum]

Dear Conal (cc Council),

For what it's worth, my reasoning was:

1) Every <node> needs an identifier, to which @target can point.

2) <node> elements might also want to be able to point to 
<msDescription> elements elsewhere, either in the same document or in a 
different document.

3) Every <node> needs a label that can be rendered, and that cannot be 
subject to character restrictions.

4) One could use a different attribute in each of these functions, but 
since they are all related (they are all essentially names of a 
manuscript represented by a node), using three attributes where one 
would do the job not only is inefficient, but also creates opportunities 
for inconsistency (i.e., error).

5) In the schema I present, the one attribute that I use has all the 
desired properties of IDs, IDREFs, and plain text names simultaneously. 
There are no character restrictions on the name, it is guaranteed to be 
unique, and @target is guaranteed to point to the name of a <node>.

I'm not sure whether my reasoning was unclear or whether Council 
understands it but disagrees. In the former case, I hope the preceding 
elaboration is helpful (and if it is still unclear, please ask!). In the 
latter, if Council understands the reasoning but nonetheless believes we 
should use three attributes instead of one, so be it.

Best,

David

Conal Tuohy wrote:
> I like it, but I have a question about the use of @n for reference.
>
> I'd have thought the standard practice here would be to have @target be a URI reference to the @xml:id of a node. The node/@n could still be used as a textual label. 
>
> Alternatively, instead of using URI reference, we could use @key and @ident, as someone I think mentioned on the teleconference.
>
> C
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: tei-council-bounces at lists.village.Virginia.EDU on behalf of David J Birnbaum
> Sent: Tue 17/07/07 13:09
> To: TEI Council
> Subject: [tei-council] tei stemma model
>  
> Dear Council,
>
> At our last conference call, Council charged Matthew and me with coming 
> up with a proposal for modeling stemmata codicum (a specific type of 
> acyclic directed graph) within a TEI framework. In anticipation of 
> tomorrow's conference call, a proposal along those lines is now 
> available at:
>
> http://clover.slavic.pitt.edu/~djb/private/article.html
>
> This is a temporary URL, but it will be valid at least through the call.
>
> I am still working on developing the XSLT needed to convert directly 
> from the descriptive model proposed in this article to SVG (an indirect 
> approach is already incorporated in the report), but that won't be ready 
> in time for tomorrow's call. Otherwise the report is more or less 
> complete, and, I hope, ready for discussion by Council.
>
> Best,
>
> David
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