[thelist] Marking up chapter.verse (or chapter.section)

[Timothy J. Luoma]

On Mon, 15 Dec 2003, Norman Beresford wrote:

> I'd take a look at how you're breaking down the data.  At the moment
> you're seeing each verse/chapter/book as an independent data type.
> Instead you should see them as more ambiguous data types.  A book is a
> book, and you'll have multiple books in the text.

You are suggesting XML, aren't you ;-?


> So you'll have a book called Matthew, but also a book called Luke.  
> Similarly Chapters are the same, except they have different numbers.  
> Why make life difficult for yourself having <chapter1 /> and <chapter2
> /> when you could have <chapter number="1" /> and <chapter number="2"
> />.  For example

Yup, you are.

> Now when you create your stylesheet to transform the XML to XHTML you
> only have to deal with <book />, <chapter />, <verse /> rather then
> <matthew />, <luke /> and <john />. You'll also have a far easier time
> selecting ranges from within the data.

But I have no experience working with XML.

*pausing*

Ok, I need to think about this some more... I don't know anything about 
working with XML... don't even think I have a book on it... but it sounds 
logical in some ways.... except I don't know how to transform XML to 
XHTML... might be overkill for this project.... (then again I might just 
be stubborn).

Thanks

TjL