Re: correspondence encoding problems: letter headings

Ron Van den Branden <[email protected]> Thu, 23 Feb 2017 12:38:46 +0100
Newsgroups	gmane.text.tei.general
Message-ID	<[email protected]>
Hi Paul and Peter,

Many thanks for your replies, I'll comment on both here.

Thanks, Paul, for correcting my limited assumptions about <head>, and 
pointing me to the corresponding <trailer> element. I agree they make an 
appealing pair for encoding letterheads occurring at the start and end 
of a letter.

Peter, your proposal is elegant and tempting as well.

Yet, what about letters written on multiple pages, each containing a 
letterhead (and not necessarily the same)? I think this would make both 
approaches less straightforward. For the sake of the argument, I'll 
assume the structure of a 2-page letter, both containing a leading and 
trailing letterhead.

-<head> / <trailer>: since they can't be intermingled with <p>'s, each 
page would have to be transcribed in a separate <div>, instead of being 
marked with <pb/>:

   <div type="letter">
     <div type="page">
       <head type="letterHead">...</head>
       <opener>...</opener>
       <p>...</p>
       <trailer type="letterHead">...</trailer>
     </div>
     <div type="page">
       <head type="letterHead">...</head>
       <p>...</p>
       <closer>...</closer>
       <trailer type="letterHead">...</trailer>
     </div>
   </div>

This wrapping of pages in <div>s seems to go against the logical content 
of the document, especially when a paragraph is split over a page 
boundary (which has been the motivation for <pb/>).

-<div type="letterHead">: this would require the <div type="letterBody"> 
to be split for each new page:

   <div type="letter">
     <div type="letterHead">...</div>
     <div type="letterBody">
       <opener>...</opener>
       <p>...</p>
     </div>
     <div type="letterHead">...</div>
     <pb/>
     <div type="letterHead">...</div>
     <div type="letterBody">
       <p>...</p>
       <closer>...</closer>
     </div>
     <div type="letterHead">...</div>
   </div>

I can imagine that both could be linked with @next / @prev, but still it 
seems highly artificial.

OTOH, and that's what I like about the flexibility of <figure>, this is 
perfectly valid:

   <div type="letter">
     <figure type="letterHead">...</figure>
     <opener>...</opener>
     <p>...</p>
     <figure type="letterHead">...</figure>
     <pb/>
     <figure type="letterHead">...</figure>
     <p>...</p>
     <closer>...</closer>
     <figure type="letterHead">...</figure>
   </div>

I had to argue with myself about the <figure>-ness of letterheads, but 
the fact that they're typically the result of a lay-out process in the 
design of the letter paper seems to be an argument in favour.

Best,

Ron

On 22/02/2017 16:52, Peter Stadler wrote:
> Hi Ron,
>
> it would mean a little restructuring but what about
> <div type="letter">
>      <div type="letterHead"/>
>      <div type="letterBody"/>
> </div>
>
> Best
> Peter
>