Ideas….

To create a schema you can use Roma. This gives you a graphical interface that allows you to include or exclude elements, include or exclude attributes, and constrain values for attribute values.

A few pointers for using Roma…

• hit submit every time you make a change. there is a bug that sometimes it doesn’t look like you’ve saved your changes, but in reality you have. and if you don’t hit save, then you’ve definitely not saved your work.
• give your schema a name that will help you understand what its purpose is for. you can also supply a description of its purpose. one idea is to create a schema and then come back later and modify it as you delve deeper into analyzing your text.
• save your schema as Relax NG schema (compact syntax). this files gives your xml code a place to go to double check that you are organizing your data properly.
• save your documentation in html so that you can read what the elements and attributes you can use in your customized schema are.
• save your customization (aka the ODD file). this is the file that creates the schema (ie .rnc file). if you have any problems with your schema you might want to look at the ODD file to make sure the changes you made are properly reflected in the schema document.

creating a schema allows your coders to reduce the options they can choose from and hopefully reduce the amount of mistakes they can possibly make.

Ways to Publish Your TEI Documents

• CSS — just to make it look pretty
• XSLT — to transform it into another thing (like XHTML)
• XML Databases — to query it.  a good opensource DB is  eXist.
• XML publishing systems — allows people to install software and publish documents.  an example of this is XTF and TEI Publisher.

Encoding Parallel Structures

This is useful for mapping one thing to another, in the below example we are translating french to english. Essentially you input an xml:id attribute the corresponds to another xml:id attribute. Below is an example of this.

<lg type=”stanza” xml:lang=”fr”>
<l xml:id=”fr2.01″ corresp=”#en2.01″>Nos péchés sont têtus, nos repentirs sont lâches;</l>
<l xml:id=”fr2.02″ corresp=”#en2.02″>Nous nous faisons payer grassement nos aveux,</l>
<l xml:id=”fr2.03″ corresp=”#en2.04″>Et nous rentrons gaiement dans le chemin bourbeux,</l>
<l xml:id=”fr2.04″ corresp=”#en2.03″>Croyant par de vils pleurs laver toutes nos taches.</l>
</lg>

<lg type=”stanza” xml:lang=”en”>
<l xml:id=”en2.01″ corresp=”#fr2.01″>Our sins are stubborn, craven our repentance.</l>
<l xml:id=”en2.02″ corresp=”#fr2.02″>For our weak vows we ask excessive prices.</l>
<l xml:id=”en2.03″ corresp=”#fr2.04″>Trusting our tears will wash away the sentence,</l>
<l xml:id=”en2.04″ corresp=”#fr2.03″>We sneak off where the muddy road entices.</l>
</lg>

More Complex Parallelism

Its also possible to link to multiple elements, so in the below example mapping the french to multiple versions of the english.

<linkGrp type=”alignment”>
<link targets=”#fr2.01 #en-a2.01 #en-b2.01 #en-c2.01 #en-d2.01″/>
<link targets=”#fr2.02 #en-a2.02 #en-b2.02 #en-c2.02 #en-d2.02″/>
<link targets=”#fr2.03 #en-a2.03 #en-b2.03 #en-c2.04 #en-d2.03″/>
<link targets=”#fr2.04 #en-a2.04 #en-b2.04 #en-c2.03 #en-d2.04″/>
</linkGrp>

So essentially you’re aligning parallel versions of a translation to one another. The poem lines are then given ids so that everything matches up. If you wanted to you can also link to another file rather than an id within the document.

Choice Elements

Allows you to show different spellings, or just choose between options.

<p>…with them, bycause they woulde
<lb/>not be
<choice>
<abbr>bo?de</abbr>
<expan>bounde</expan>
</choice>
also for an other wo
<lb/>m? at theyr pleasure, whom they
<lb/>knewe not, nor yet what matter</p>

So you can have mark up that looks at the original reading and then you can see the corrected version. So if you want to view the spelling mistakes or whatever you can, but if you want to only see the corrected version you can.

Revision Processes/Editing Processes

It’s possible to look at revised manuscripts and step through the revision process. So if you can determine what was added and deleted you can include it in your mark up

<lg>
<head>After <del>an</del><add>the <del>unsolv’d</del></add> argument</head>
<l><del>The</del><add><del>Coming in,</del> A group of</add> little children, and their
<lb/>ways and chatter, flow in <del>upon me</del></l>
<l>Like <add>welcome</add> rippling water o’er my
<lb/>heated <add>nerves and</add> flesh.</l>
</lg>

There is also a more complex version of this that allows you to express the different versions of the text (assuming that you can determine it from the original). In the below example you can see how a person was trying to determine what it was in the original document.

<p>Johnston etc 1764 Mr Nikl<unclear>e</unclear>
<supplied>s</supplied><gap reason=”folded” extent=”unknown”/> Brown
<unclear>&amp;Co</unclear> to me George <unclear>Beverly juner</unclear>
to ten Rum Barels at Four pound &per; Barel — — — £40</p>

Slides For this Talk

The slides for this talk can be found on Brown’s Website