LatinML: XML and Latin Texts at the Center for Electronic Texts in the Humanities

LatinML: Latintexts XML Conversion Project

What is XML?

XML is a subset of SGML. SGML was designed for large document management systems.
SGML is complex and not suited well for the web.
XML was designed as an open standard to describe a syntax which can be used to define elements specific to a document
For example, we may if we wish, describe elements and attributes of a latin poem in latin.
XML describes what things are, the DTD describes the elements or markup
XML is a way to describe documents for a particular audience, for example, poets

Why use XML and not HTML?

The tag sets are fixed in HTML, it is intended only to display documents in a browser
W3C works to extend HTML tags with the newer browsers but the tags are still rigid
HTML cannot describe specialized information, it is a presentation language for browsers
It was realized that HTML was becoming increasingly inefficient to provide structured information
XML is strict, it conforms to syntax rules
XML describes content which allows the sharing of data
XML defines arbitrarily its own tags
XML is basically a toolkit to develop specialized mark up languages
XML is Extensible, you can mark up the data anyway you like, even in latin
XML supports Unicode
XML is structured information which can be delivered and searched more effectively
XML is an open standard

Example: Horace: Book I, 4th Ode without transformation and with.

If you are using an older browser you will see the first instance of a XML document does not render properly on the screen but the second one displays. The second poem is converted to HTML by Cocoon and the first is left in XML. Most modern browsers can now render simple XML.

an imagined Catullus

As part of the ongoing development of the lector longinquus project, some of the poems of Catullus and odes of Horace are being marked up in XML, or in what we might call LatinML.

A poem of Catullus in XML with its internal DTD and its XSL can be viewed in HTML.

A poem of Horace in XML, its external DTD and its XSL can be viewed in HTML as well.

The Document Type Definition (DTD) describes every object that will appear in the document. It starts with the elements and then the attributes.

The XSL is the XML Stylesheet Language. It determines how a document is presented on the screen.

Cocoon is basically a big java servlet which can render HTML files automatically from XML, DTD and XSL files. This is how we presently use it but it can do much more. For example, it can be used to generate historical time lines on the fly, please see Bruce Robertson's Historical Event Markup and Linking page.

It is our opinion that XML will become the standard for document delivery on the web in the near future. In order to avoid the problem of transforming large numbers of HTML documents later, we will markup our documents now in XML. More latin texts will become available in XML as time allows. The Spectator Project has moved some texts to XML from XHTML.

Some information on XML is available on the web at:

Some Recommended Reading:

Harold, Elliotte Rusty. XML Bible. 2nd Edition.
New York: Hungry Minds, Inc., 2001.

Hunter, D. Beginning XML.
Birmingham: Wrox Press Ltd., 2000.

Kay, M. XSLT: Programmer's Reference.
Birmingham: Wrox Press Ltd., 2000.

Marchal, B. XML By Example.
Indianapolis: Que, 2000.

Oram, A. ed. Peer-to-Peer: Harnessing the Power of Disruptive Technologies.
Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly and Associates, Inc., 2001.

Ray, E.T. Learning XML.
Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly and Associates, Inc., 2001.

07/09/2001

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