[tei-council] Comments - Using the TEI

[Laurent Romary]

Replace [The wording is probably too strong and may frighten users]
	" For these reasons, it is almost impossible to use the TEI scheme  
without customizing or personalizing it in some way." by
	" For these reasons, a first step in using the TEI scheme is to  
customize or personalize it in some way."

Replace [The corresponding paragraph is quite essential and could be  
quoted in isolation]
	" Formally speaking, these Guidelines" by
	" Formally speaking, the TEI Guidelines"

[First series]

Question: does the definition of "clean" (imposing the reference to  
elements in the TEI namespace) implies that any TEI+SVG combination  
(or TEI+MathML, or...) is unclean right from the start?

In section 24.2.1.1 (Deletion of elements) nothing is said about how  
users can know which element is mandatory. Should we do something  
about this?

Replace [section 24.2.1.4]
	"<source>" by
	"@source"

In the example [section 24.2.1.4], could not we have a policy about  
using dummy namespaces: http://www.hatstand.org/ does exist and has  
nothing to do with the TEI... I gues we should use http:// 
www.example.com/ns

Replace [just incompatible with the definition of "clean"!]
	"The set of documents matched by a schema generated from an ODD  
modified in this way, and the set of documents matched by the  
unmodified schema may be related in several different ways. It is  
certainly possible that the former could properly include the latter  
or vice versa; either of these could be said to be clean  
modifications because the set to be matched has become strictly  
larger or strictly smaller. But it is more likely that such  
modifications will be unclean." by
	"The set of documents matched by a schema generated from an ODD  
modified in this way, and the set of documents matched by the  
unmodified schema may be related in several different ways. It is  
certainly possible that the latter could properly include the former;  
which could be said to be a clean modification because the set to be  
matched has become strictly smaller. But it is more likely that such  
modifications will be unclean."

A question, which may have been discussed already... : why don't we  
use the 'mode' attribute on <classes> (adding a class, deleting a  
class, etc.), possibly having more than one <classes> declaration.  
This would make the thing more in line with the other modification  
mechanisms.

I am not sure about this sentence [section 24.2.1.5 - again, may be  
not compliant with the notion of cleanliness]:
	" Adding a new attribute to a class however can be a clean  
modification only if the new attribute is labelled as belonging to  
some namespace other than the TEI."

Replace (wrong use of namespace syntax):
	"<div  xmlns:my="http://www.example.com/ns">
		<!-- ... -->
   		<p n="12" topic="rabbits">Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and  
Peter...</p>
	 </div>" by
	"<div  xmlns:my="http://www.example.com/ns">
		<!-- ... -->
   		<p n="12" my:topic="rabbits">Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and  
Peter...</p>
	 </div>"

Again, I am not sure about the sentence: "Since topic is explicitly  
labelled as belonging to something other than the TEI namespace, we  
regard the modification which introduced it as clean." We should  
discuss this at the Tekon (cf. note 112 — If this is true, I have no  
problem...)