Re: [Bug-gnupedia] About the Format

[Mike Warren]

Tore Morkemo <address@hidden> writes:

> A few tags should be allowed inside <content> as well. We need a way
> to do cross-references, like <wwwurl>. Other references might be to
> other persons. We should identify xml-tags for other types of
> information inside content as well.

Hi! I'm new; I haven't read all the archives yet, so I hope I'm not
breaking in or repeating things...

Anyway, I agree that the <content> should contain other descriptive
tags like <title>, <subtitle>, <reference> (for internal and external
references...), perhaps like <reference url="http://www.gnu.org";> or
<reference subject="science.biology"> or whatever, <b>, <i>, <quote
name="Mike Warren" email="x" url="x">, <image>, <video>, <animation>,
<sound>, (or perhaps these could all be <multimedia>), ...

I feel it's better to have slightly too much information in the tags
than slightly too little. Plus, it would make it easier to make the
encyclopedia available in different formats (e.g. perhaps for
hand-held devices and the like).

Also, to encourage authors and ease the load on editors, there should
be a script of some sort which can convert an email (or web-based)
submission into more-or-less valid XML. I do this for my personal
page, which is stored in SGML, and it works quite well. I just use X-
headers in the email for more-specific things. This should take
something like:

,----[ submission email ]----
| From: Approved Author <address@hidden>
| Subject: FlooBlargs
| X-Dewey-Classification: whatever
| 
| Abstract
| 
| Living alone or in groups, these fluffy mammals are an interesting group
| because they are the only animal on Earth with three eyes.
| 
| Mating Patterns
| 
| This is some information about how FlooBlargs mate. It's not very long.
|
| This is another paragraph with some *bold* text and some _underlined_.
| 
| ...etcetera...
`----

and turn it into something like:

,----[partial XML representation]----
| <article>
|         <authors>
|                 <author>
|                         <name>Approved Author</name>
|                         <email>address@hidden</email>
|                 </author>
|         </authors>
| 
|         <classification>
|                 <dewey>whatever</dewey>
|                 <loc></loc>
|         </classification>
| 
|         <content>
|             <abstract>
|               Living alone or in groups, these fluffy mammals are an 
interesting group
|               because they are the only animal on Earth with three eyes.
|             </abstract>
| 
|             <subtitle>Mating Patterns</subtitle>
|             <p>
|               This is some information about how FlooBlargs mate. It's not 
very long.
|             </p>
| 
|             <p>
|               This is another paragraph with some <b>bold</b> text and some
|               <u>underlined</u>.
|             </p>
|         </content>
| </article>
`----

Obviously, it might need refinement (i.e. perhaps the author doesn't
know the Dewey Decimal System like me and doesn't include one of these
in his post) but I think most of the important information can be
gleaned from the layout of the post and a few standard header-type
things. For example, it's relatively easy to see what are sub-headings
in:

,----
| 1.0 Title
| 
| 2.0 Another Title
| 
| 2.1 Subtitle
| 
| 2.2 Another Subtitle
| 
| 3.0 Conclusion
`----

Plus, almost everyone who might be interested in contributing can send
ASCII email or visit a Web site with a form.

-- 
address@hidden
<URL:http://www.mike-warren.com>
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