RE: [xml-dev] Proposed Application for Literature

by "Devlin Peter W" <DevlinPeterW(at)JohnDeere.com>
Date:	Sun, 26 Oct 2003 02:02:51 -0600
To:	sandy(at)scotstext.org, xml-dev(at)lists.xml.org
Cc:	hwg-gutenberg(at)hwg.org
	todo: View Thread, Original
The HTML Writers Guild has css and dtd files that were built just for =
this:
http://gutenberg.hwg.org/index.html You will find some short tutorials =
on the markup and there are plenty of examples of finished text.

For those who are familiar with the effort, yes, it does seem dead but =
that is just it's appearance at the moment [I'll not define moment ;)]. =
It's ressurection just might be on the horizon...

Pete Devlin

-----Original Message-----
From: Sandy Fleming [mailto:sandy(at)fleimin.demon.co.uk]
Sent: Sunday, October 26, 2003 01:12
To: xml-dev(at)lists.xml.org
Subject: [xml-dev] Proposed Application for Literature


Dear list people,

This is a "please stop me from reinventing the wheel" sort of posting.

I maintain the "Scotstext" website at http://scotstext.org/ and am =
looking
to put it into XML or at least supply parallel XML files to the HTML =
already
present.

This contains all sorts of traditional literature (all in or about =
Scots) -
poems, essays, stories, novels &c. It doesn't attempt to reconstruct the
original books online (I plan to do that through photscans), so it's =
purely
a Web presentation. My problem is that I can't find a good XML =
application
for representing both poetry and prose.

The most authoritative XML representation of poetry I've seen is the =
Project
Gutenberg XML, but, as well as the fact that PG doesn't seem to try very
hard at Wen presentation, it doesn't give me a way of representing the
indentation of the poetry. I also want to be able to include "semantic"
information, so that a person can order up things like "All ballades by
Andrew Lang before 1949", for example.

An rough example of how a single poem might look (note that the URLs =
don't
currently exist) is:

<Text>
    <Head>
        <Author>Andrew Lang<\Author>
        <Date>1945</Date>
        <Genre>Ballade</Genre>
        <Indent>01</Indent>

<Photoscan>http://scotstext.org/photoscans/northern_muse/p224.png</Photos=
can
>

<Photoscan>http://scotstext.org/photoscans/northern_muse/p225.png</Photos=
can
>
    </Head>
    <Title level=3D'1'>Ballade o the Tweed</Title>
         <Paragraph>Written on the banks of the river in
question.</Paragraph>
    <Stanza>
        <Line>The ferox rins in ruch Loch Awe,</Line>
        <Line>A weary cry frae ony toun;</Line>
        <Line>The Spey, that lowps o'er linn an fa',</Line>
        <Line>They praise a' ither streams abuin;</Line>
        <Line>They boast their braes o' bonny Doon:</Line>
        <Line>Gie me to hear the ringin reel,</Line>
        <Line>Where shilfas sing an cushats cruin</Line>
        <Line>Bi fair Tweedside, at Ashiesteel!</Line>
    </Stanza>
    <Stanza>
        <Line>There's Ettrick, Meggat, Ail, an a',</Line>
        <Line>Where troot sooms thick in Mey an June;</Line>
        <Line>Ye'll see them tak in shouers o snaw</Line>
        <Line>Some blinndin, cauldrife Aprile nuin:</Line>
        <Line>Rax ower the palmer an mairch-broun,</Line>
        <Line>An syne we'll show a bonny creel,</Line>
        <Line>In spring or simmer, late or suin,</Line>
        <Line>Bi fair Tweedside, at Ashiesteel!</Line>
    </Stanza>
    <Stanza>
        <Line>There's mony a watter, great or sma',</Line>
        <Line>Gaes singin in his siller tune,</Line>
        <Line>Throu glen an heuch, an hope an shaw,</Line>
        <Line>Beneath the sunlicht or the muin:</Line>
        <Line>But set us in oor fishin-shuin</Line>
        <Line>Atween the Caddon-burn an Peel,</Line>
        <Line>An syne we'll cross the heather broun</Line>
        <Line>Bi fair Tweedside, at Ashiesteel!</Line>
    </Stanza>
    <Chorus label=3D"Envoi">
        <Line>Deil tak the dirty, tradin loon</Line>
        <Line>Wad gar the watter ca' his wheel,</Line>
        <Line>An drift his dyes an pizens doun</Line>
        <Line>Bi fair Tweedside at Ashiesteel!</Line>
    </Chorus>
</Text>

I use <Text> rather than <Poem> because there might be any sort of text =
in
here - the <Genre> element should clarify exactly what it is.

Does anyone know if this sort of application is already available, or do =
I
need to develop it myself?

If I do, what sort of software (other than stuff I already know I need =
for
my site) should I be developing to support it, as a minimum?

Thanks for any help/pointers.

Sandy Fleming
http://scotstext.org/


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