Digital Media Technology Week 5: XML and Presentation Peter Verhaar

□ XML as explicit representation of implicit information □ Logical structure (OHCO) □ Semantic contents: facts and interpretations; “intelligent texts” □ Editorial annotations □ Metadata Text encoding

ePistolarium

Mandala Browser

Vincent Van Gogh Letters

□ TEI encoding is a form of descriptive markup: it mainly describes the contents (e.g. book titles, personal names, dates) □ Form is flexible; it is generally added at a later stage, via a stylesheet XML and presentation

Stylesheet

□ Fixing the text: books / print □ Stability of form and content □ Fixity □ Inseparability of form and content Presentation on analogue medium □ Separation of form and content □ Fluidity of form □ Lack of closure Presentation on digital medium

Medium-neutrality TEI HTML PDF MS Word Stylesheet ePUB

□ eXtensible Stylesheet Language for Transformations □ XSLT stylesheet contains a ‘blueprint’ for the file to be created XSLT

XML Source XSLT Stylesheet XML Result

Flexible presentation Please find inclosed enclosed Diplomatic edition: Critical edition:

□ Separation of form and content □ Possibilities for filtering □ Textual analyses: calculations Advantages

Different outputs

Transformation to PDF □ XSL:FO (Formatting Objects) □ XSL:FO creates a “Page Design” and text can be pasted into this basic layout

Tree diagram of an XSLT stylesheet

<xsl:template match=“letter” >

[...]

□ Include a template that points to the root element of the XML source. Getting started Letter from De Erven F. Bohn to W. Blackwood and sons, January 22nd, 1873 …. … XML XSLT

… XML Source XSLT XML Result