[tei-council] divWrapping: summary and question

Tue Jul 17 14:19:03 EDT 2007

For those of you for whom it is not obvious why divWrapping is
currently broken, and who do not remember why from the thread here
back in April or from the Berlin meeting, I will post a description
of the main problems "divWrapping: problem description" in a few
seconds.

This post is a summary of the divWrapping issue for <div>, <divN>,
and <body> (egregiously exempting <front> and <back>), and a request
for input from Council and how to fix divWrapping.

Summary of Problems
------- -- --------

* In a <div>, things that should not be allowed in the div-bottom
  area are (in particular <head> and <opener>)

* <body> has the reverse problem, that none of the divWrapper
  elements are allowed near the bottom

Possible Solutions
-------- ---------

Back in April I outlined two possible fixes to the class system,
implicitly asking which was better. IIRC only 1 person even appeared
to express a preference either way, and it wasn't clear that he (CW)
was talking about a specific solution or the problem in general.

So, here is the question again in summary, and then in detail. Note
that for purposes of this discussion, I've used shorthand names in
the summary question.

Should we have

a) the common elements in divWrapper, divWrapper as part of divTop
   and divBot, thus content models refer to divTop or divBot; or

b) the common elements in divWrapper, but divWrapper is not a member
   of divTop and divBot, thus content models refer to both divTop and
   divWrapper, or both divBot and divWrapper? 

The following describes scenarios a & b more verbosely, and perhaps
more clearly.

--------- (a) ---------
model.divWrapper = argument byline dateline docAuthor docDate
model.divTop     = model.divWrapper head opener salute epigraph
model.divBottom  = model.divWrapper closed signed trailer ps

Content models have things like
      model.divTop*
and
      model.divBottom*

We have no way to refer to the set of elements head, opener, etc.
alone, without also referring to argument, byline, etc.

--------- (b) ---------
model.divWrapper = argument byline dateline docAuthor docDate 
model.divTop     = head opener salute epigraph
model.divBottom  = closed signed trailer ps

Content models have things like
      ( model.divWrapper | model.divTop )*
and
      ( model.divWrapper | model.divBottom )*

If one ever wanted to refer to the class of elements that can go at
the top *but not the bottom* of a division, you'd say
model.divTop. 

It would be very nice if I could get a sense of which of these two is
preferred ASAP.