re: [gutvol-d] Annotations for students
scott said:
The ideal solution would be a tiny bit of automation (perhaps created by a student if techie stuff isn't your thing).
"tiny" is a very misleading term, i think. unless you can show me this "tiny" thing.
Then you could keep the annotations separate, and just add small markers to the original text.
um, keeping the annotations separate is a good idea. but requiring "small markers" in the original text is not. the text should remain unchanged, for many reasons.
Simple scripts could do things like: - format the annotations on their own - insert the annotations into the text, preferably with appropriate HTML wrapper that lets readers show/hide using CSS (style sheets) or JavaScript.
except what you have described is _far_ from "simple", as well as i can tell. do you have sample implementations?
As others have noted, HTML or the newer XHTML is ideal here.
"ideal"? i think not. indeed, to the direct contrary, i believe that heavy markup makes on-the-fly adding of annotations _extremely_ difficult. but, as i said, if you can show me some examples, ones that make it as simple as you make it sound, i am open to being convinced otherwise... -bowerbird
Bowerbird wrote:
scott said:
As others have noted, HTML or the newer XHTML is ideal here.
"ideal"? i think not.
XHTML is certainly not the best XML-based vocabulary for marking up books. A carefully selected subset of TEI is much better. Both are used in the context of XML. XHTML can be adapted to books (and is.) If XHTML is used in a major way to markup books, it makes sense to come up with a standardized set of pre-defined classes to identify text structures and content semantics. At this point, though, it still makes more sense to switch to TEI. This is apparently what DP plans to do.
indeed, to the direct contrary, i believe that heavy markup makes on-the-fly adding of annotations _extremely_ difficult.
How is that? Annotations can be linked to the text using the markup as "hooks" (e.g., using XPointer.) The more markup there is, the more hooks to latch onto.
but, as i said, if you can show me some examples, ones that make it as simple as you make it sound, i am open to being convinced otherwise...
XPointer provides an XML-based standard to point to any spot in an XML document. Pointing to 'id' ("fragment identifiers") is the most robust and can survive various types of document edits. In plain text systems, where annotations have to hook to the content itself (rather than markup which is separate from the content), it is more difficult to prevent link breakage. Jon
The ideal solution would be a tiny bit of automation (perhaps created by a student if techie stuff isn't your thing).
"tiny" is a very misleading term, i think. unless you can show me this "tiny" thing.
All that's required is a tab-delimitted file (or database or spreadsheet) with 2 columns: id, annotation. Now, in your favorite scripting or programming language, iterate thru the file, read the id and annotation, then replace the former with the latter in the marked-up book. (Including the appropriate (X)HTML wrapper, as noted.) For someone who doesn't write scripts, it's not trivial. For someone who does, it's a few lines of code. Note that with a little more techie work, the process could be simplified for the annotaters. They could add the annotation text directly in the document, surrounded by unique delimiters. Then, a script could generate any version, e.g. replace delimiters with (X)HTML wrapper and/or with a generated unique ID; extract the annotations to a separate (X)HTML file that can be printed on its own, etc. All this stuff is pretty easy for a college student with any scripting experience.
Then you could keep the annotations separate, and just add small markers to the original text.
um, keeping the annotations separate is a good idea. but requiring "small markers" in the original text is not. the text should remain unchanged, for many reasons.
Sure, in the ideal world. Meanwhile, inserting unique IDs is a pragmatic solution. Of course there's some work involved to sync the marked version with any future PG updates, but given "diff" tools, it's not that much work for a handful of annotated books. (And, with a little work, could be largely automated.) And, I'm all in favor of someone taking the time to get an XPATH solution working. -- Cheers, Scott S. Lawton http://Classicosm.com/ - classic books http://ProductArchitect.com/ - consulting
participants (3)
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Bowerbird＠aol.com -
Jon Noring -
Scott Lawton