[tei-council] Dates and calendars

[Gabriel Bodard]

On 2012-08-14 16:31, Martin Holmes wrote:
>> What is this schematron supposed to be constraining? No @calendar if
>> <date> (etc) is empty?
> I think so. That should be true, shouldn't it?

I'm not clear what an empty <date> means, myself, so I'm not sure I can 
imagine what the danger of allowing @calendar on it is. Is the idea that 
@calendar should only be used when the date is used in transcription of 
a primary text?

>> No *-custom without @datingPoint|@datingMethod?
> I had thought so, but then I realized I wouldn't want to enforce either
> of those things. If @calendar points to a <calendar> with a detailed
> description of the dating system, then there's no point in @datingMethod
> (which also "supplies a pointer to a <calendarDesc> element or other
> means of interpreting the values of the custom dating attributes".
> (Incidentally, should that be <calendarDesc> or just <calendar>?)
> Similarly, @datingPoint is obviously optional.
>
> However, I think it's true to say, isn't it, that if you have any of
> @*-custom, you should have one of @calendar, @datingMethod or @datingPoint?

Yes, that is almost certainly true. So is the rule, report @*-custom 
without @calendar|@datingPoint|@datingMethod? That seems responsible, 
although I'm one of those people who often uses sloppy behaviour in 
practice that would fall foul of this.

I worry a bit about the two above rules being a bit contradictory, 
though. We don't complain about @*-custom on an empty element; but we do 
complain about @*-custom without @calendar|@dP|@dM, so I add @calendar 
to make it valid, and it then complains about @calendar on the empty 
element. (Maybe @calendar has no bearing on @*-custom at all, though?)

-- 
Dr Gabriel BODARD
(Research Associate in Digital Epigraphy)

Department of Digital Humanities
King's College London
26-29 Drury Lane
London WC2B 5RL

Email: gabriel.bodard at kcl.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)20 7848 1388
Fax: +44 (0)20 7848 2980

http://www.digitalclassicist.org/
http://www.currentepigraphy.org/