[tei-council] Questions regarding HD-The TEI Header

[Lou Burnard]

Christian Wittern wrote:
> Council members,
>
> While working on my assignments for the new chapter triage, I came across
> the following questions:
>
> * Examples showing the teiHeader structure:
>
> <teiHeader>
>   <fileDesc>
>    <titleStmt/>
>    <publicationStmt/>
>    <sourceDesc/>
>   </fileDesc>
>  </teiHeader>
>
> These are looking as if they would be valid as empty elements.  I wonder if
> it wouldn't be better to show them as
>
> <teiHeader>
>   <fileDesc>
>    <titleStmt>... </titleStmt>
>    <publicationStmt>...</publicationStmt>
>    <sourceDesc>... </sourceDesc>
>   </fileDesc>
>  </teiHeader>
>   

There are several places where XML comments have been lost from the
examples: I have corrected these and will look out for others.

> to enforce the point that they do not by itself form a valid TEI file.
>
>
> * model.sourceDescPart:
>
> There seem to be five different models for sourceDescPart:
>
> model.sourceDescPart = scriptStmt | recordingStmt
>
> model.sourceDescPart_sequence = scriptStmt, recordingStmt
>
> model.sourceDescPart_sequenceOptional = scriptStmt?, recordingStmt?
>
> model.sourceDescPart_sequenceOptionalRepeatable = scriptStmt*, recordingStmt*
>
> model.sourceDescPart_sequenceRepeatable = scriptStmt+, recordingStmt+
>
> (similar models are also defined for encodingDesc)
> under what conditions are which models activated?
>
>   

This is a consequence of the "generate all possible models" design
decision for ODD, which we may wish to review.

On another matter, I noticed that the discussion of the <stdVals>
element implies the possibility of using non-standard values for e.g.
date valued attributes. Since the schemas don't permit this, I wonder
whether there is any point in retaining this element. I've retained it
for the moment, but reworded as follows to make clear that it's not in
general a good idea...

<p>In most cases, attributes bearing standardized values (such as the
<att>when</att> or <att>when-iso</att> attribute on dates) should
conform to a defined W3C or ISO
datatype. In cases where this is not appropriate, this element may be
used to describe the standardization methods underlying the values
supplied.