[MEI-L] form & function

Johannes Kepper kepper at edirom.de
Fri Mar 6 22:39:53 CET 2009


To bring this discussion to a preliminary end, here's my compromise:

could we agree on changing the name from musicclass to classification?  
musicclass sounds like a classification of only musical properties,  
and a distinction between mss and prints is nothing musical. The  
function thing is also no classification of the music itself. If we  
could agree on choosing the broader term here I would be absolutely  
satisfied, leaving the discussion of the element's content model to  
the NEH/DFG meetings.

Now let's concentrate on the moment of success :)

johannes



Am 06.03.2009 um 21:22 schrieb 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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