Re: [gutvol-d] differentiating between indentation and no indentation after p...

In a message dated 12/20/2005 7:12:21 P.M. Mountain Standard Time, wally.thompson@gmail.com writes: I'm working on a book that has poetry within the text. Sometimes a poem ends the paragraph and sometimes it does not. So I'm wondering how to handle this in the text file without leaving it ambiguous. Wally, could you provide a brief example? I don't do much with proofreading on PG, but I am a book publisher. If I saw an example in which the poem ends the paragraph and the poem does not end the paragraph, it would help. Are you saying that in some cases the poem is within the paragraph and the paragraph continues after the poem, or that the paragraph ends but the poem carries over to the next paragraph? I've seen both, and of course they're handled differently. Anne

On 12/20/05, Gutenberg9443@aol.com <Gutenberg9443@aol.com> wrote:
In a message dated 12/20/2005 7:12:21 P.M. Mountain Standard Time, wally.thompson@gmail.com writes:
I'm working on a book that has poetry within the text. Sometimes a poem ends the paragraph and sometimes it does not. So I'm wondering how to handle this in the text file without leaving it ambiguous.
Wally, could you provide a brief example? I don't do much with proofreading on PG, but I am a book publisher. If I saw an example in which the poem ends the paragraph and the poem does not end the paragraph, it would help. Are you saying that in some cases the poem is within the paragraph and the paragraph continues after the poem, or that the paragraph ends but the poem carries over to the next paragraph? I've seen both, and of course they're handled differently.
Anne
Here is example 1, where a new paragraph begins directly after the poem: http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/pageviewer?frames=1&coll=moa&view=50&root=%2Fmoa%2Fatla%2Fatla0018%2F&tif=00706.TIF&cite=http%3A%2F%2Fcdl.library.cornell.edu%2Fcgi-bin%2Fmoa%2Fmoa-cgi%3Fnotisid%3DABK2934-0018-102 Here is example 2, where the paragraph continues after the poem: http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/pageviewer?frames=1&coll=moa&view=50&root=%2Fmoa%2Fatla%2Fatla0018%2F&tif=00739.TIF&cite=http%3A%2F%2Fcdl.library.cornell.edu%2Fcgi-bin%2Fmoa%2Fmoa-cgi%3Fnotisid%3DABK2934-0018-105 These examples come from the Atlantic Monthly, December 1866. The Gutenberg Ebook is located at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17217/17217-8.txt. The Gutenberg Ebook formats both examples in the same way. So the reader of the ebook faces an ambiguity as to whether or not a new paragraph begins after the poem. In the book that I'm working on, I'm facing the same issue. I would like to make it clear to the reader weather or not a new paragraph begins after a poem. But I would also like to be consistent with other Gutenberg Ebooks. So I'm wondering how others have dealt with this problem. Wally

On Tue, Dec 20, 2005 at 11:07:09PM -0700, Wally Thompson wrote:
Here is example 1, where a new paragraph begins directly after the poem:
Here is example 2, where the paragraph continues after the poem:
These examples come from the Atlantic Monthly, December 1866. The Gutenberg Ebook is located at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17217/17217-8.txt.
The Gutenberg Ebook formats both examples in the same way. So the reader of the ebook faces an ambiguity as to whether or not a new paragraph begins after the poem. In the book that I'm working on, I'm facing the same issue. I would like to make it clear to the reader weather or not a new paragraph begins after a poem. But I would also like to be consistent with other Gutenberg Ebooks.
Thanks for the question, Wally. It's a good one. You can't do both. In the same circumstances, I would change the normal conventions either a) to indent the first line of each actual paragraph or b) to introduce two blank lines, rather than one, after a poem where a new para begins after it. and clarify what I was doing, and why I was doing it, by means of a Transcriber's Note at the top of the file. There are probably other reasonable ways of indicating the necessary distinction, but the general formula of "choose one, and leave a Transcriber's Note that applies to the whole text" will work for any of them. Any general set of rules need to be bent for some texts, and the Transcriber's Note, by which you communicate to the reader how and why you rendered _this_ one differently, is a time-honored way of regularizing exceptions, so don't be too worried about complete consistency with the most common cases. jim

Jim Tinsley wrote:
On Tue, Dec 20, 2005 at 11:07:09PM -0700, Wally Thompson wrote:
[snip]
I would like to make it clear to the reader weather or not a new paragraph begins after a poem. But I would also like to be consistent with other Gutenberg Ebooks.
Thanks for the question, Wally. It's a good one.
You can't do both.
I think's it's obvious, Wally, that what you need is a markup language. The problem is that historically Project Gutenberg has been considered a NMA (No Markup Allowed) zone. In recent years, with the addition of HTML-formated works, this "standard" has been relaxed, but it is still required that works submitted to PG be reduced, in at least one instantiation, to a non-marked-up format. The way to get around this requirement it to create a markup language (perhaps only powerful enough to deal with the one problem you have encountered) that doesn't _look_ like a markup language, and thus might slip through unnoticed. These types of markup languages have been variously referred to as "unobtrusive markup languages" or "smart ASCII." Examples include ReStructured Text (http://docutils.sourceforge.net/docs/ref/rst/restructuredtext.html) and Bowerbird's Zen Markup Language (unpublished).
In the same circumstances, I would change the normal conventions either
a) to indent the first line of each actual paragraph
or
b) to introduce two blank lines, rather than one, after a poem where a new para begins after it.
and clarify what I was doing, and why I was doing it, by means of a Transcriber's Note at the top of the file.
This was my first inclination also. Essentially, the Gutenberg Markup Language defines the end of a text block (which may be a paragraph or may be something else) as text which ends with two consecutive newline sequences. Thus, to indicate that the poem is contained by the paragraph, it should be a simple matter of including only a single newline sequence before the beginning (and after the end) of the poem. Unfortunately, there is some uncertainty about whether single newline sequences have significance in GML. One of the biggest complaints that users of handheld devices have about GutenTexts is that with displays that have widths of less than 80 characters (and usually not a convenient multiple thereof) if newlines are significant you will get texts that have three full lines of text followed by a line of just one or two words, followed three full lines of text, followed by one or two words, and so on. Thus, many user agents which are designed to display GutenTexts consider a single newline sequence as insignificant, and treat it simply as a space, as do many utilities which have been written to convert GutenTexts to more consumer-friendly formats. In these cases, in addition to losing the "lininess" of the poem, you will also lose its "blockiness" as well. So what you need is a way to indicate "this is a block which does not end the previous block, but is encapsulated within it" as well as a way to indicate "this is a significant line ending which must not be removed." Solving the second problem may also solve the first. Let's assume that for a mandatory line endings we use the ASCII sequence "<br/>." You could encode your second example as: <example> satisfy the best soodra society,--<br/> "With the yellow torches gleaming,<br/> And the scarlet mantles streaming,<br/> And the canopy above<br/> Swaying as they slowly move."<br/> Karlee has assured me that neither his </example> In this case, the mandatory newline sequences convey the meaning you desire, both as to the stanzas of the verse and as to the fact that it is part and parcel of the enveloping paragraph. Of course, I wouldn't use the "<br/>" sequence as the mandatory newline indicator, as it smacks to much of XHTML, and may draw the attention of the markup police. Instead you could use something less intrusive, such as the unix newline code ("\n"), some unusual sequence that has no semantic overloading (such as "^!"), or something more descriptive (and thus less "codey") such as "{end line here}." Now these proposals all sacrifice the Gutenberg consistency for textual expressiveness. It is also possible to sacrifice the textual expressiveness for the sake of simplicity of text--and this may be the better choice. Almost all texts coming from Distributed Proofreaders these days are submitted (and available) in XHTML format, which clearly has the expressive power to satisfy this type of construct. Perhaps the right thing to do is to consider the XHTML version as the canonical version, and simply place a Transcriber's Note at the beginning of the simplified text version to the effect that, "Some structures in this book are not expressible in a simple text format, and have therefore been omitted here. Readers interested in a more accurate representation of this publication should refer to the file '17217.html'."
There are probably other reasonable ways of indicating the necessary distinction, but the general formula of "choose one, and leave a Transcriber's Note that applies to the whole text" will work for any of them.
This is good advice. In the end, it probably doesn't matter as much what you do, as it does that you simply inform people what you have done, and why you did it.

Thanks for your message Lee. On Wed, 21 Dec 2005, Lee Passey wrote:
This is good advice. In the end, it probably doesn't matter as much what you do, as it does that you simply inform people what you have done, and why you did it.
Interestingly enough, the last place that I read something similar to that was in some TEI markup guidelines. Andrew

On Tue, 20 Dec 2005, Wally Thompson wrote:
On 12/20/05, Gutenberg9443@aol.com <Gutenberg9443@aol.com> wrote:
In a message dated 12/20/2005 7:12:21 P.M. Mountain Standard Time, wally.thompson@gmail.com writes:
I'm working on a book that has poetry within the text. Sometimes a poem ends the paragraph and sometimes it does not. So I'm wondering how to handle this in the text file without leaving it ambiguous.
Wally, could you provide a brief example? I don't do much with proofreading on PG, but I am a book publisher. If I saw an example in which the poem ends the paragraph and the poem does not end the paragraph, it would help. Are you saying that in some cases the poem is within the paragraph and the paragraph continues after the poem, or that the paragraph ends but the poem carries over to the next paragraph? I've seen both, and of course they're handled differently.
Anne
Here is example 1, where a new paragraph begins directly after the poem:
Here is example 2, where the paragraph continues after the poem:
These examples come from the Atlantic Monthly, December 1866. The Gutenberg Ebook is located at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17217/17217-8.txt.
The Gutenberg Ebook formats both examples in the same way. So the reader of the ebook faces an ambiguity as to whether or not a new paragraph begins after the poem. In the book that I'm working on, I'm facing the same issue. I would like to make it clear to the reader weather or not a new paragraph begins after a poem. But I would also like to be consistent with other Gutenberg Ebooks. So I'm wondering how others have dealt with this problem.
Wally
We used to just put in an extra blank line to make things like this obvious to our readers. Some would even put in some kind of marker, such as an * Michael

"Anne" == Gutenberg9443 <Gutenberg9443@aol.com> writes:
Anne> In a message dated 12/20/2005 7:12:21 P.M. Mountain Standard Anne> Time, wally.thompson@gmail.com writes: Wally> I'm working on a book that has poetry within the Wally> text. Sometimes a poem ends the paragraph and sometimes it Wally> does not. So I'm wondering how to handle this in the text Wally> file without leaving it ambiguous. Anne> Wally, could you provide a brief example? I don't do much Anne> with proofreading on PG, but I am a book publisher. If I saw Anne> an example in which the poem ends the paragraph and the poem Anne> does not end the paragraph, it would help. Are you saying Anne> that in some cases the poem is within the paragraph and the Anne> paragraph continues after the poem, or that the paragraph Anne> ends but the poem carries over to the next paragraph? I've Anne> seen both, and of course they're handled differently. Anne> Anne Practically: in a printed book, you recognize that a new paragraph starts after the poem from the indent. PG books do not indent paragraphs, but mark with a blank line. So there is a blank line always, since after a poem one leaves a blank line anyway. The problem is that if you want to reformat a book with indented paragraphs, the information is gone, and you cannot decide if there is a new paragraph or not (unless e.g. the new text starts with lowercase, since a new paragraph starts a new sentence. But of course there is the possibility that there is a new sentence but not a new paragraph...) This shows once more that presentational markup with blank lines only is insufficient to capture all the informations. The problem is not only for poetry, it is also valid for quotes; with the added complication that a quote can be subdivided in paragraphs, (or a poem subdivided in stanzas) and nevertheless the quotation ban be contained in the body of a paragraph: He said (first paragraph of a quotation) (second paragraph of the quotation) and even added (more quotation) After a long pause he added (final quotation) This is probably two paragraphs, but maybe only one. Carlo
participants (7)
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Andrew Sly
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Carlo Traverso
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Gutenberg9443@aol.com
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Jim Tinsley
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Lee Passey
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Michael Hart
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Wally Thompson