[MEI-L] form & function

[Roland, Perry (pdr4h)]

To librarians classification and description are different things and so shouldn't be comingled.  The original TEI header (that is, before the addition of msdesc) kept these separate, that is, in textClass and textDesc siblings within profileDesc.  This is the correct approach, in my opinion.  Unfortunately, textDesc was for description of the text in other than physical terms.

When msdesc was added, even though the physical description capabilities of TEI were minimal, I presume they were thought to be good enough for everything but manuscript material because a decision was made to concentrate on manuscript description, not on general physical description. 

Instead, in MEI I've tried to provide facilities for general physical description much like in EAD (which, by the way, it seems to me that TEI also imitated while adding more complexity).

MEI's physdesc is analogous to TEI's msdesc element, not its physdesc element.  However, MEI's physdesc combines a number of things (again, more like EAD) that TEI parcels out into a more deeply-nested hierarchy.

To sum up,

1) it's not a good idea to mix classification and description;
2) if there is physical description information which MEI doesn't currently accommodate, the <physdesc> element is the place to put it;
3) EAD is a much better exemplar than TEI to imitate if more detail is needed.

--
perry

__________________________
Perry Roland
Scholarly Resources
P.O. Box 400155
University of Virginia Library
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4155
434-982-2702 (w)
pdr4h at virginia.edu
________________________________________
From: mei-l-bounces at lists.uni-paderborn.de [mei-l-bounces at lists.uni-paderborn.de] On Behalf Of Johannes Kepper [kepper at edirom.de]
Sent: Friday, March 06, 2009 2:23 PM
To: Music Encoding Initiative
Subject: Re: [MEI-L] form & function

Hi all,

what about renaming physdesc to desc and putting a classification
(instead of musicclass) in there? This kind of information is
descriptive, so it might be a good idea to put these things together…
Choosing the name msdesc without having the same content as tei:msdesc
is of course not an option, and definitely not what I intended.


johannes

Am 06.03.2009 um 19:57 schrieb Roland, Perry (pdr4h):

> All,
>
> I think it would be very bad indeed to put TEI's msdesc element into
> MEI at this time.  I don't see a reason to replicate msdesc in MEI
> mainly because it's too complex.  I think I've provided most of the
> same description capabilities in MEI in a simpler fashion; that is,
> via the sub-elements of physdesc.
>
> The name "musicclass" is an adaptation of "textclass" from TEI P4.
> And I'm not opposed to renaming it as long as the new name isn't
> "msdesc"!  :)  That would cause a different kind of confusion.
> However, I don't have a different name on the tip of my tongue right
> now.
>
> --
> perry
>

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