Re: use cases for <space>

An excellent taxonomy, and a useful point of departure for some advice  on how to encode stuff that is not (quite) there, but is not a lacuna in the ordinary sense of the word. Michael Oakeshott in On Human Conduct distinguishes between procedures, which always are evidence of intelligence, and processes, which are not. There is a big difference between a wink or blink of an eye. Gaps are blinks rather than winks. 

So one might argue that the <gap> element should never be used for absences that result from some choice and absences that are not intentional. Whose intention? A book that has come down to us in a censored version has gaps that the author did not intend. It gets complicated at the edges, but may still be useful in determining whether <gap> should or should not be used. 

On 2/13/17, 1:25 PM, "Paul Schaffner" <[email protected]> wrote:

    I'm off to a meeting, so I won't trouble to defend <gap/>, but
    would for the moment point out that there are at least four
    situations, some of which should perhaps be distinguished:
    
    1. A book leaves a blank because the information is not
    (yet?) available. E.g. in lists of office holders or attendees at
    a meeting, if the name is forgotten or similar you'll see
    
       John Smith
       Bill Bones
       James ________
       Richard Roe
    
    (gaps left for decorative initials to be supplied later might
    fall into this category too.)
    
    2. A form or form book leaves blanks intended to be put in
    by hand when used
    
       This __ day of ___ 16__, the ship ______ was examined
       and found to draw ____ feet of water.
    
    3. Polite elision, occasional before 1700, endemic in the 18th
    century. A blank intended to be filled in *mentally* but not
    usually physically.
    
       Mr. B***** of the town of M****** wrote to me...
    
    4. An example of one of these (especially no.2) which has
    in fact been filled in.
    
    Also that the 'blank' itself might be literally blank, or might be
    represented by some character or character string, such as
    ----- _____ ***** or .....  -- which might be worth preserving.
    I used to think this info not worth preserving, until I received
    queries from three different people trying to find patterns in
    the characters used to represent polite elision.
    
    More later (maybe).
    
    pfs
    
    
    On Mon, Feb 13, 2017, at 10:10, Martin Mueller wrote:
    > The sources of TCP texts include forms that deliberately leave a space to
    > be filled in by somebody,  as in A83003 (Wing E1791), where the phrase
    > “Aſſeſſors and Collectors of” is followed by a space to let somebody
    > write down what they were assessing or collecting.  In this particular
    > TCP transcription the space is represented by a <gap> element. That
    > doesn’t seem right.  There is no lacuna there; it is, in Wallace Stevens’
    > lovely phrase a “nothing that is.”
    > 
    > Would <space> be the appropriate element for representing this?  It’s
    > from the transcription module, which deals with the physical aspects of
    > documentary edition, which is not what the TCP texts are about. And the
    > description of the <space> element in the Guidelines does not include
    > this, although I’d think of this as a very obvious use case that it might
    > good to have mentioned there, if <space> is thought of as the right
    > solution for this sort of thing.
    > 
    > And what about a name like “B     “, not uncommon in satirical texts?
    -- 
    Paul Schaffner  Digital Library Production Service
    [email protected] | https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.umich.edu_-7Epfs_&d=CwIFaQ&c=yHlS04HhBraes5BQ9ueu5zKhE7rtNXt_d012z2PA6ws&r=rG8zxOdssqSzDRz4x1GLlmLOW60xyVXydxwnJZpkxbk&m=Xjy5Q1JvULQg5EHa_clELImZ4XVfKjgw_cugcVHsx2U&s=MpTdbfsBzFC1RWy2STHoAVOTHgurMwv8nNTkzviAHSI&e=