TEI Discussion Exercise

[ebeshero]

Begin by reading these slides: "Overview of Text Encoding and the TEI"

Then contribute a post to this conversation about learning the TEI. Please respond in your post to at least two of the following prompts:

• From what you're reading, how is writing TEI code similar to or different from what you've been doing with XML so far?

• What new things are you learning about representing documents in markup from these slides?

• On one of the slides the authors make an interesting statement about what TEI does:
  "So although it looks as if what we’re doing here is reproducing a text, we are, in fact, selectively and strategically modelling it. We’re creating a surrogate or proxy, which functions sort of like a different projections of a map: each with selective and useful omissions and distortions. "
  What do you think is the difference between reproducing and modeling in this statement and why might it be important to help us understand what we are doing when we describe documents using TEI and XML?

• Think about the documents or objects we have looked at together so far (where you could see the source text images, like the Norton Teyoninhokawaren manuscripts, the typescripts from Langston Hughes, or some of your project files), and pick one that you remember really interested you. How do you think TEI could help you model something interesting about that document or object ?

** Fun fact: one of the people who helped develop this slide deck is a member of our newtfire GitHub organization, @sydb . Other friends from the markup community who may be interested in our discussion include @djbpitt and @haggis78 .

[meganlitz28]

[ From what you're reading, how is writing TEI code similar to or different from what you've been doing with XML so far? ]

• TEI is slightly similar to XML; this is because the TEI format uses similar markup words as the XML format. With the tags being similar, the main issue is that TEI has preset tags, whereas XML allows for custom tags. This means that TEI will not let you customize it to your needs fully.

[ What new things are you learning about representing documents in markup from these slides? ]

• I learned that TEI is XML, but slightly more advanced than XML. TEI can also be transformed into several different forms. I also like that TEI has the presets that can help me advance my skills with the XML into TEI. With TEI, it makes our codes for XML become more advanced, but we can still understand them.

[mo-wright]

1. Prompt One TEI appears to have the same general ethos behind it as the assignments we've been doing with XML. We are, at a base level, taking documents and modelling them in a way that organizes both the information they contain and the features of how said information is being conveyed. The difference is having specific tags and formatting guidelines within TEI meant to standardize the documents being marked up with them - something that is incredibly useful, as working in XML with no guidelines can be difficult, where you don't know exactly where to start or what elements you should be differentiating.
2. Prompt Four For an assignment, we marked up a Langston Hughes poem that was preserved by the Library of Congress, and had a few drafts before the final available. I feel like this poem and the series of drafts would be perfect for modelling with TEI. It seems to provide specific language for both poetry and for the data used when differentiating multiple versions/drafts of the same text. Judging from the primer on TEI, I believe it could model the changes made between drafts organizationally, as that was one of the harder things to do without existing guidelines.

[mrs7068]

Hello everyone! I'm Michael Simons, and I'm not in your class! I'm a DIGIT student who took DIGIT 110 last fall and is currently taking DIGIT 400 and 496 with Dr. B. I'm here to join this conversation about TEI!

@meganlitz28 I would check out this section of the reading again! You're on the right track—TEI does have preset tags. What I think you're missing is that TEI is XML! It's a specific set of rules for tagging using XML. So yes, while that may seem like a limit, the TEI guidelines provide a wide variety of tags and rules for XML text encoding, allowing for it to be used in many projects!

[mrs7068]

When I began text markup in DIGIT 110, I often questioned the open-endedness of using XML for the first time; I wondered, "is there a right way to do this? How can multiple ways be right?" The answer is found here in the reading: XML is the syntax, and TEI is one possible language that can be used with that syntax. I was essentially creating my own language by encoding text in XML my own way, and I didn't necessarily like that because I wanted a standard to follow. TEI is the biggest standard "language" which makes it really interesting to me.

Thinking about what the authors said about reproducing vs. modelling... both are about preserving something, but one stops at preservation. Reproducing aims to simply preserve with the highest possible accuracy. The authors are saying that modelling a text is about perseveration, but also practicality—what can you do with the information you've preserved. The "digitalness" of XML markup opens up many ways for text to be manipulated, searched, displayed, analyzed, etc.; and the TEI providing a standardized way of doing so is a double whammy!

** Fun fact: I've met some of those people in Dr. B's fun fact! Syd through being in the background of Dr. B's zoom calls, and David in person for class and other things! I hope you all get to meet them someday too!

[ebeshero]

@sydb Just a shout-out: you've been mentioned. ^^^^^ ;-)

[EvanB6]

1. What new things are you learning about representing documents in markup from these slides?
   Some new ideas that I am learning from looking at some of the documents is marking up Paragraph structure, document structure, and details about the physical document.

2. From what you're reading, how is writing TEI code similar to or different from what you've been doing with XML so far?
   As I was reading through the information on TEI I noticed that XML has a lot more freedom because you can create how the text is going to format and you set the rules. XML mainly just gives you tools to create your own markup formatting. What I saw about TEI is it gives you a format and rules to follow for certain types of text that you are marking up. These presets could be poems, books, or other documents.

[mfp5837-oss]

1. TEI is different from writing in XML due to it's rules for example XML is a lot more relaxed which it allows you to create your own markup and giving you more freedom. TEI has tags that follow an actual encoding language.

2. Something new I learned is that although TEI and HTML both us an encoding language they both have different end goals like TEI uses encoding language to mark up texts to break down information for readers while HTML breaks down information to be displayed on a web page.

[afish2003]

1. [From what you're reading, how is writing TEI code similar to or different from what you've been doing with XML so far?]
   TEI is very similar to the XML code that we are used to as it is done in XML documents. TEI is merely a schema and one could say TEI is a sort of sub-genre of XML. Im not sure if DIGIT 110 has got to schemas yet but once you get there it will make sense haha. TEI uses the same basic code structure of tagging just instead of creating and naming your own tags you use ones that preexisting in the TEI library/schema.

2. [Think about the documents or objects we have looked at together so far (where you could see the source text images, like the Norton Teyoninhokawaren manuscripts, the typescripts from Langston Hughes, or some of your project files), and pick one that you remember really interested you. How do you think TEI could help you model something interesting about that document or object ?]
   I am not exactly sure which texts you have looked at in class so far but when I took this class I did a script from a movie. TEI is amazing for keeping good markup in a script as its has elements for speaker, scene, and all the other misc details you would want to mark up. This helps you to keep a good followable structure in your markup. When doing XML without a schema its so easy to divert all your text into different tags, with TEI the tags are premade for you and you simply just have to select the correct one per the TEI guidelines.

[jvm7131]

1. The structure of the tags are the same but when using XML we can make up our own tags but with TEI we can make our own tags we have to use the tags specifically made for TEI

2. I learned that HTML is good for putting things online but TEI lets you describe more details like who’s speaking or what’s happening in a scene it keeps the structure and meaning of the text while HTML focuses more on how it looks

[galiotoella2005]

• From what you're reading, how is writing TEI code similar to or different from what you've been doing with XML so far?
  TEI code is similar to XML as it follows the same general rules and syntax as TEI is a form of XML. TEI is different from XML as it is a more specific set of of encoding.

• What new things are you learning about representing documents in markup from these slides?
  Firstly, I learned what TEI is and that it is a form of XML used to define text more specifically like with the tags <p>, <l> or <person>.

[ebeshero]

@galiotoella2005 I just added ```` backtick marks to make sure your angle-bracketed code (like <person> could show in your markdown post!

[miraclewill1234-ship-it]

Reflective Response: Getting Started with TEI

I’ve been exploring the slideshow introduction to the TEI, and while I understand the basic idea that TEI helps structure and encode texts for digital use, I’m honestly still struggling to grasp how all the tags and rules work together. It feels a bit overwhelming right now because I’m not used to this kind of markup language.

I think I need some extra time and guidance to get more comfortable with it — especially understanding when and how to apply certain elements. But overall, it’s kind of like XML, which helps me make a little more sense of it since I can see some similarities in how both use tags to organize data.

I see the value in learning TEI, but at this point, I definitely need a bit more help and time to get the hang of it.

[ebeshero]

@miraclewill1234-ship-it It definitely takes time to learn how to work with TEI, and a lot of that time involves looking up elements, looking at examples, and trying to figure out how to build the document model you want to make with TEI...or see what the TEI approach is to what you want to do. Working with TEI involves lots of what we like to call "Looking Stuff Up" :-) , and often getting advice on it. (So that's how I can help.)

Also, usually (maybe always?), people don't figure out how to do TEI for a project totally alone. Usually we start with someone connected to the TEI community to guide the first steps, and we start with some models of related documents. So we'll be doing that.

[BradleyUrban]

Reflection: TEI

So, how I am reading it, HTML and XML are just small factors, or as it states in the reading, "small flavors or slices" of TEI. It seems as though it is TEI needs to my more specific when deciphering the text of any project and needs to be more in-depth on how you code everything for TEI. As it states in the text and also how I would describe it, it needs to be formally made to get the proper results down on TEI use. To wrap it up, it seems as though TEI is almost like a center point to all different kinds of text encoding markup languages and other like HTML and XML, are smaller pieces to the big TEI.