Dear critical edition experts,

the examples given in ConTeXt_Test_Footnote-ComplexMedieval.pdf and the other posts are really answering my questions. Everything seems to be already there and if there were a Wiki on critical editions I would perhaps have not even asked. Thanks a lot! If anything else is planned by the
experts and you need input from a Sanskrit editor, please let me know.

As far as I see, no ConTeXt input format for critical editions is needed, but since the topic is
being discussed -

I don’t see any future in developing a ConTeXt input format for critical editions, for the following reasons: 1. Producing a print-only version (i.e. printed book) makes no sense in 2022. This is not sustainable because no-one will be able to take your edition and continue to work on it. You have to provide a digital edition as research data. 2. This digital edition has to be in a standard format that is sustainable at least for some time so it can be processed with various types of software. TEI xml has become the de facto standard.

I must disagree. There is no print only version any more, so the first question is: Is a pdf more sustainable, or an online edition (based on html etc.)? Time will tell, I guess. The same applies to TEI based online editions by the way. No larger texts have been edited by that method yet (in my field), many projects are being worked on, but they tend not to be finished, when the project ends. Some of the people actually working with both TeX and XML-based say that the latter
significantly slows down the collation process.

At least in Indology books and scans are still being used. Everyone is talking about online editions, data repositories etc., but the reality as I experience it is not up to these expectations. One of our great paleographical online tools was almost lost, since there is no institutional funding for updating those systems. Even finding a host for an online edition can be (and is in our case) a nightmare. In short, my solution is: printed version as in the last centuries, possibly additional online edition with a shorter life span and online publication of research data. This sounds great, but actually we are talking mainly about the collation file, that is, the TeX-input file. Not a big deal, since now this can be turned into xml by ekdosis, and that's it. The mss scans are prohibited from online publication by German copy right (no Indian institution will grant
any rights).

Let me emphasize that I am not at all against these new possibilities. I was part of an online dictionary project (nws.uzi.uni-halle.de) that worked with TEI and everything else, but after the threat to close down Indology in Halle (the location of the dictionary), I have to finance occasional updates from our normal budget (the DFG had decreed that no further funding for this project was possible) and after my retirement - I have no great hopes for a continuation of my post - it might become quickly useless. As long as we have enough nerds who can and will do
the necessary work privately, we are safe.

3. ConTeXt is not stable enough to provide such a standard format: it is in development; what you code today may not be compilable in 2 (or 5 or 50) years.

Perhaps not, but I had much fun just checking out its possibilities and have started to use it as the default.

4. However, ConTeXt is wonderful for processing xml.
Hence: keep the input source and the processing separate. Code in TEI xml (or a subset of it) and develop a ConTeXt stylesheet to process it.

I am used to TeX-code, and so I'd rather stick to that and let ekdosis do the conversion, if necessary. But in publication practice in my field, most of this is just for private entertainment. Almost all publishers still expect a Word file, so the tool of choice
is pandoc to downgrade from TeX to docx. Sorry to end on this depressing note.
Best
Jürgen



---

Prof. Dr. Juergen Hanneder
Philipps-Universitaet Marburg
FG Indologie u. Tibetologie
Deutschhausstr.12
35032 Marburg
Germany
Tel. 0049-6421-28-24930
hanne...@staff.uni-marburg.de

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