[tei-council] damage - what is it good for?

[Lou Burnard]

As I proceed through PH wreaking havoc, I have come upon the <damage> 
element. This is allegedly used to mark a part of a manuscript within 
which there has been some damage to the carrier, e.g. by rubbing or 
singeing or spilling marmalade, but not so much as to make the 
transcriber unsure of what the writing actually says (if that were the 
case, the <unclear> element should be used), nor so extensive as to make 
the writing (or the carrier) actually disintegrate or disappear (for 
which the <gap> element is available).

As defined, <damage> respects textual structures even less than the 
other elements. If it is to be kept, it should probably be given a 
sister <damageSpan> (analogous to <delSpan>) so that it can point across 
div boundaries for example.  Though even then there isn't any really 
satisfactory way of dealing with things like circular spots of damage in 
the middle of the page, which have to be split up into numerous <damage> 
elements.

But since it is really about the state of the carrier, not the text, why 
would you want to record it anyway? I am sorely tempted to just remove 
it and see who protests....