[tei-council] Outcome of TEI Council discussion on Text Directionality

[Kevin Hawkins]

(This is only going to tei-council because I'm not a member of the other 
list.)

See below ...

On 4/25/13 1:39 PM, Martin Holmes wrote:

> 2. PROPOSAL #3: WHAT ELEMENTS SHOULD HAVE THESE NEW ATTRIBUTES
>
> Currently, the TEI @rotate attribute (which really means rotate-z,
> rotation around the z axis) is available only on <zone>. The three
> attributes we propose, one of which would replace it, would be provided
> as a class. The question is what elements should be members of that class.
>
>    - The most conservative approach would be to keep it only to <zone>,
> so you could only use rotation if you're using the Facsimile module.
>
>    - Another would be to say that rotational features are inherently
> topographical, and therefore all suitable elements in the genetic
> editing set (<line> etc.) might also bear them.
>
>    - Most liberally, we might say that these rotational attributes may be
> essential in any kind of transcription, so they should be available on
> any transcription-bearing element in <text> or <sourceDoc>.

I prefer the most liberal approach.  If a TEI user is transcribing a 
source document that contains text that are natively written in various 
directions, we should allow them to represent this directionality 
without requiring that they use the Facsimile module or the genetic 
editing set.  Sometimes you just want to do a simple TEI document, and 
we shouldn't require people to do something complicated just because 
their language isn't Western.  That's why, for example, <g> is so widely 
available.

--K.