prose e-texts

[gruenendahl]

Dominic Goodall wrote:

>  When the prose is not a commentary on a verse or suutra text (in
> which case the verses or suutras themselves often create conveniently
> numberable paragraphs), what are good ways of providing clear referencing
> that is visible for every screenful of text?  E-texts which indicate page
> and line numbers of a well-known edition break up the sentences
> arbitrarily.

In those cases where the large prose units ("book", "chapter", etc.) cannot be broken
down into smaller ones with the help of interspersed verses etc., one way of
referencing is to combine the references to these units with those to the page AND
paragraph. The page number is provided by the edition itself, while the paragraph
numbering is fictitious.

For better orientation I would suggest to attach the reference to the beginning of the
paragraph, followed by a colon. The entire reference should be put in brackets or
other symbols THAT SHOULD NOT BE USED FOR ANY OTHER PURPOSE, e.g.:

{3.2;p.134,3:}    or alternatively    *3.2;p.134,3:**
i.e., Book 3, Chapter 2, page 134, paragraph 3.

With the help of these brackets/symbols, references can later be defined as "Hidden
Text" (or some such feature of word processing programme) and suppressed to
avoid "arbitrary break up". Variants can be added in the same manner.

This procedure works on all platforms from DOS text upwards, which I for one would
consider essential.

Best regards

Reinhold Grünendahl





********************************************************************

Dr. Reinhold Gruenendahl
Niedersaechsische Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek
Fachreferat sued- und suedostasiatische Philologien
(Dept. of Indology)

37070 Göttingen, Germany
Tel (+49) (0)5 51 / 39 52 83
Fax (+49) (0)5 51 / 39 23 61
gruenen at mail.sub.uni-goettingen.de

FACH-INFORMATIONEN INDOLOGIE, GOETTINGEN:
http://www.sub.uni-goettingen.de/ebene_1/fiindolo/fiindolo.htm
In English:
http://www.sub.uni-goettingen.de/ebene_1/fiindolo/fiindole.htm

GRETIL - Goettingen Register of Electronic Texts in Indian Languages
http://www.sub.uni-goettingen.de/ebene_1/fiindolo/gretil.htm