In message <[log in to unmask]>, CS
Hardman <[log in to unmask]> writes
Catherine,
>Firstly archiving, yes in an ideal world everyting we dealt with would
>be in XML (or whatever is to come next!), however, we are an archive
>often working with dated, legacy data that we are lucky if we have a
>machine on which to read it. So our deposit guidelines reflect the world
>as it is, not necessarily as we would like it to be. But yes, one of my
>jobs in the next few months is to revise the whole of the Guidelines for
>Depositors.
I certainly don't expect that you will be offered much (if any!)
TEI-conformant XML. My thought was more that it would make sense, as
far as is practicable, to have a policy of converting your "dated,
legacy data" into something that you _can_ read for the foreseeable
future. Software such as Logictran makes a pretty good job of
automatically converting Word documents to e.g. Docbook XML or XHTML.
If you go for XML as an archive medium, you can preserve the structure
as well as the content of your contributions - something that archiving
plain ASCII would not achieve. This would as a minimum add to their
aesthetic value, and should enhance their value as an information
resource.
>Secondly, another of our roles is to provide advice and guidance for
>those creating digital resources (including text). In the series of
>Guides to Good Practice , our advice on good practice in creating texts
>can be found at (http://ota.ahds.ac.uk/documents/creating/chap5.html#0)
>where, I hope you will be pleased to find a chapter on SGML/XML and TEI.
Pleased to find it, certainly, but I hope it's on your list of things to
update...
>You asked what ODA was - Office Documentation Architecture devised by
>the ISO - do we get the prize?
I knew _you'd_ know! Just teasing - I remember earnest "SGML vs. ODA"
debates about 15 years ago. Never met anyone who actually used ODA.
(Nor many, in the museums world, who used SGML - but that's another
story!)
Richard
--
Richard Light
SGML/XML and Museum Information Consultancy
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