3.1041 decline of noisy reading? SGML and hypertext? (85)
Willard McCarty (MCCARTY@vm.epas.utoronto.ca)
Tue, 13 Feb 90 20:35:30 EST
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 3, No. 1041. Tuesday, 13 Feb 1990.
(1) Date: 12 Feb 90 22:37:18 EST (20 lines)
From: James O'Donnell <JODONNEL@PENNSAS>
Subject: Query
(2) Date: Tue, 13 Feb 90 10:45:21 PST (54 lines)
From: cbf%faulhaber.Berkeley.EDU@jade.berkeley.edu (Charles Faulhaber)
Subject: electronic critical editions
(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 12 Feb 90 22:37:18 EST
From: James O'Donnell <JODONNEL@PENNSAS>
Subject: Query
From: Jim O'Donnell (Penn, Classics)
Way out of my usual neighborhood and groping around for anything
substantial in a field where it could be hidden *anywhere*: Does
anybody know of good studies of the decline of reading aloud in modern
times anywhere on continental Europe or the Americas? What kind of
evidence is there for how long reading aloud continued to be part of
educational institutions, social gatherings, family fireside life, etc.
[a licit use of etc., I hope]? Likewise what kind of evidence for the
decline of such? Also medical: at what point did physicians begin to
leave off recommending reading aloud as a healthful exercise?
The zippy way of saying why I'm interested is that I think people
started to get bored with Cicero when they stopped hearing the grand,
rolling organ music of his prose: even when he's *utterly* boring, he
plays Latin the way Miles Davis plays a trumpet.
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------67----
Date: Tue, 13 Feb 90 10:45:21 PST
From: cbf%faulhaber.Berkeley.EDU@jade.berkeley.edu (Charles Faulhaber)
Subject: electronic critical editions
For an introduction to a special issue on textual criticism for
<emp>Romance Philology</emp> I am writing an introduction on the critical
edition of the 21st century, which, as I see it, will be essentially
some sort of hypertext system.
I am currently struggling to figure out the relationship between
hypertext and SGML, not so much as SGML descriptions of hypertext
systems (the subject of one query not so long ago), but rather the
relative merits of coding a particular feature via SGML or linking a
region of text to another node in the system.
Let us suppose, for example, that one is interested in marking all
examples of religious imagery in a particular text. Under SGML one
would tag each of those samples with something like <rel.img></rel.img>.
In a hypertext system one would mark off the region of text, and link it
to a node called "Religious imagery," which might or might not have a
short description of some kind with it. The link in turn would be coded
with one or more attributes, such as TYPE = imagery.
The user, presumably, would be able to use a filter in both systems to
locate all of the examples of religious imagery and then work with that
set for whatever purposes he or she might conceive.
One of my problems is that I have little experience with an SGML system
and no experience with hypertext. In terms of text preparation,
however, coding for imagery in both systems would take roughly the same
amount of time (a lot), since all of the coding and linking would have
to be done manually.
In some other examples, such as indication of sources and parallels, it
seems to me that hypertext is clearly superior because of the fact that
it allows for linkages between two separate texts. But for
text-internal references I'm not so sure.
In any case, I would greatly appreciate hearing from anyone who has
either knowledge or strongly held opinions.
Charles Faulhaber
UC Berkeley
bitnet ked@ucbgarne
internet cbf@athena.berkeley.edu