TEI Information Sheet
The Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) is an international research
project funded by the US National Endowment for the
humanities, the European Community (DG XIII), the Andrew
W Mellon Foundation and the Canadian Social Science and
Humanities Research Council and sponsored by the Association
for Computing in the Humanities, the Association for Literary
and Linguistic Computing and the Asssociation for
Computational Linguistics. Since 1988, it has been working
towards the definition of a suite of extensible Guidelines and
Recommendations for use when encoding all kinds of text in
machine readable form for all kinds of research purposes. Its
initial proposals, derived from extensive consultation in the
research community represented by its three sponsoring
organizations, appeared as an initial report in November 1990.
That document (P1) recommended the adoption of a standard
based on the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML,
ISO 8879) and made very detailed proposals for document type
definitions covering a large range of document types, including
tagsets for basic prose, dictionaries, lexical and syntactic
analyses and textual criticism amongst others. These proposals
have since been further refined and extended by a number of
specialist working groups, and are now being published in
fascicle form, as further described below.
Addresses
The TEI is managed by a steering committee composed of
representatives of the three sponsoring organization. The
editorial work is co-ordinated by two editors, whose addresses
follow:
C. M. Sperberg-McQueen, (editor in chief)
University of Illinois at Chicago (M/C 135)
Computer Center
1940 W. Taylor St.
Chicago, Illinois 60612-7352 US
[log in to unmask]
+1 (312) 413-0317 Fax: +1 (312) 996-6834
Lou Burnard, (European Editor)
Oxford University Computing Services
13 Banbury Road, Oxford OX26NN, UK
[log in to unmask]
+44 (865) 273200 Fax: +44 (865) 273275
Contents of P2
Version 2 of the Guidelines for the Encoding and Interchange of
Machine-Readable Texts (TEI P2) is being published initially in
electronic form. Rather than issuing TEI P2 as a complete,
comprehensive, single volume work, the TEI will publish each
section of TEI P2 as soon as it has been approved by the
drafting committee and the editors. A copy of the current table
of contents accompanies each fascicle and is also attached to
this document.
This serial mode of publication has the major benefit of
simplifying the review of the Guidelines for the reader. Not
everyone has the time or inclination to comment on a volume
the size of TEI P1 when it lands on the desk all of a piece, while
individual chapters on specific topics can perhaps be more
readily and speedily considered. We hope that this means the
quality and quantity of public comment will increase: you can
help by commenting yourself or by making sure that other
interested persons in your organization who may not have
access to electronic mail are made aware of the drafts as they
come.
Each fascicle is also accompanied by a User Response Form.
The TEI is very anxious to receive detailed technical comments
on any aspects of its recommendations, and this form is simply
a convenient way of soliciting them. Comments are of course
welcome in whatever format is most convenient: they may also
be directed to TEI-L, as discussed below.
File Formats
Each file containing a draft fascicle has a name in the form
P2xx.yyy where xx is a two letter code (earlier drafts used a
number) for the chapter name and yyy a code indicating the file
format or filetype. If you have plenty of file space and access to
a PostScript printer, we recommend you to download files with
the filetype PS. If you just want to read the text, on screen or
with screen-like formatting, download files with the filetype
DOC. If you have access to the TeX text formatting system,
download files with the filetype TEX (But note that very few
files are as yet available in this format). Or if you want to see
the drafts in their true SGMLshape, then download the files
with filetypes P2X and REF.
In summary, the following filetypes are currently used:
- PS: Postscript (not readable on screen)
- P2X, REF ,DTD SGML files (readable on screen, but full of tags)
- DOC, LIST Formatted file (readable on screen, no tags)
- TEX Suitable for input to the LaTeX or TeX processor
As you might expect, P2 is being drafted using SGML, and
all drafts are available in this form. Files of type DTD contain
DTD fragments; files of type P2X and REF contain distinct
parts of theSGML document. As their names suggest, P2X uses
an extended version of the P2 DTDs themselves, while REF
files contain the formal definitions of TEI elements, parameter
entities and element classes which will make up the alphabetical
reference section for P2. The current drafts use a preliminary
version of this DTD, which we are not making generally
available since it is not yet fully documented nor likely to be of
general interest; SGML hackers with a burning desire to know
more should contact the editors.
The draft DTD files contain the Document Type
Declaration (DTD) for the material covered in each fascicle and
these files will be made available on the server for retrieval by
anyone interested in detailed study of the TEI proposals. Please
note however, that these DTD fragments are unlikely to be
usable as a whole for some time, and may be subject to
substantial revision.
The TEI-L Listserver
TEI-L is the name of a publicly-accessible ListServ maintained
at the University of Illinois at Chicago, to which anyone
interested in the TEI should be subscribed. This ListServ is the
primary communications channel between the TEI and the
research community it serves. Subscribers to TEI-L can
exchange messages, discussion and comment with each other
and with other participants in the TEI. They are also
automatically informed, by electronic mail, whenever a new
fascicle of the TEI Recommendations is available and how it
may be downloaded.
To subscribe to TEI-L, send an electronic mail message to the
address
[log in to unmask]
The exact form of this address may vary on different computer
systems; for systems on Bitnet, for example, it is is simply
[log in to unmask] You should consult your local support staff for
advice on which format to use.
The text of the mail message you send should contain a line
like the following:
subscribe TEI-L J. Q. Public
substituting your real name !! not your network address!! for J.
Q. Public. The ListServ program is clever enough to work out
your network address by inspecting the envelope of your
message, but needs to know your real name for its membership
list.
When you are registered as a subscriber to TEI-L you will
receive an introductory package of materials giving further
details of services available, TEI publications etc.. The
following briefly summarizes the most commonly used
commands. Like the subscribe command above, each one
should be sent as the body of a mail message to the address
[log in to unmask]
To get a list of files available from the TEI-L fileserver:
index TEI-L
To get a copy of the specific file called FOO BAR (filenames on
this system consist of two words separated by a space):
get FOO BAR
To get a list of subscribers to TEI-L and their addresses:
review TEI-L
To suspend messages from TEI-L temporarily (for example because
you are going on holiday):
set TEI-L NOMAIL
To resume your subscription (Caution! you will never see any
messages that came while you were away!):
set TEI-L MAIL
Whichever message you send, the ListServ will always reply
to you by electronic mail. If you are requesting a very large file
from it therefore, you should be sure not only that you have
enough disk space but also that your mail system can cope with
large messages. If this is likely to cause problems, you might like
to consider using FTP instead (see further below)
Finally, if you want to make a comment on P2 or enter into a
general discussion with other subscribers, you can send an
ordinary mail message to the address
[log in to unmask]
Messages sent to this address are automatically forwarded to all
subscribers to the list. Please bear this in mind when sending your
message! Not every subscriber is interested in any difficulty you
may be having downloading files for example P messages on
such topics should be sent to the TEI secretariat at
[log in to unmask] However, general comments on the
content of the TEI Recommendations or specific questions and
criticism about them are very welcome indeed.
Other ListServ sites
Identical facilities to those listed above are available from a
Listserv maintained in Germany at the University of
Goettingen, which distributes copies of TEI drafts
electronically and also hosts a discussion list. The name of the
list is MARKUP-L, and its address is [log in to unmask] , (or,
for EARN sites, Listserv@dgogwdg1)
To use this listServ, use exactly the same instructions as
those above, substituting "MARKUP-L" for "TEI-L", and
ibm.gwdg.de for uicvm.uic.edu throughout
FTP access
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is an alternative means of
transferring files from one computer to another now very widely
used on the Internet. If your computer supports this system, you
may find it more convenient than ListServ, since it allows for
files to be transferred directly from one machine to another
rather than as electronic mail messages. On the other hand, you
will not be advised of the availability of new fascicles
automatically unless you are subscribed to a ListServ.
Your local communications support staff should be able to
advise you on the use of anonymous FTP, which is more or less
standard across a very wide range of computer systems. The
example below assumes that you are accessing the FTP server
maintained by the SGML Project at the University of Exeter in
the UK, which has agreed to make TEI drafts generally
available in this way, but the same principles apply to many
other sites.
To connect to the file server
At the operating system prompt, type
ftp sgml1.ex.ac.uk
or
ftp 144.173.6.61
You will be promoted for an account or user name (the exact
form of the prompt will be different on different machines), to
which you should simply respond
ftp
or
anonymous
There may be some delay following a "Connected" message
before you are asked for a password. You should then supply
your full e-mail address.
For full information on available FTP commands, ask your local
support staff. Some examples of the most commonly used
commands follow:
To get the file readme, renaming it as TEI.ReadMe:
get readme TEI.ReadMe
To get all the files of type doc in the current directory:
mget *.doc
To change the current directory to tei/drafts:
cd tei/drafts
To list the names of the files in the current directory:
ls
To disconnect from the server:
bye
Remember that most FTP servers run under UNIX or use
UNIX style file naming conventions and structures, in which
(for example) upper and lower case letters are regarded as
distinct.
For information about the structure and organization of the
TEI files held at the Exeter file server, your first command after
getting connected should be
get tei/readme
Other FTP sites
Japan: The TEI P2 fascicles may also be obtained by
anonymous FTP from the following two sites in Japan. Those
who can reach these sites are strongly recommended to get the
files from either of them
pine.kuee.kyoto-u.ac.jp
ftp.hitachi-sk.co.jp
PINE is for those accessing from the western part of the country
and the HITACHI site is for those accessing from the eastern
part.
Standard anonymous ftp login procedure and restrictions
apply at each site. Each fascicle is stored in compressed tar
format in a file called P2xx.tar.Z (where xx is the identifying
code for the fascicle), containing all released formats. These
files are held in directories
pub/TEI (at pine.kuee.kyoto-u.ac.jp)
pub/doc/TEI (at ftp.hitachi-sk.co.jp)
Like other .tar.Z files, these files are not suitable for transfer
to non-Unix machines, and should be transferred in Binary
Mode In each directory, an additional README file is available
containing updated information on its contents
TEI enthusiasts in the Far East are requested to contact
Professor Syun Tutiya of Chiba University, who has
responsibility for East Asian distribution of TEI materials on
behalf of the TEI Japan Committee (an independent
organization with the goal of ensuring that East Asian needs,
particularly but not exclusively character-set related, are met by
the TEI Guidelines). Contact address:
Syun Tutiya
Department of Philosophy
Chiba University
1-33 Yayoi-cho
Inage
Chiba Chiba 263 JAPAN
email: [log in to unmask]
fax: +81-43-256-7032
The TEI Japan Committee is also interested in formulating a
common set of comments from Asian points of view; those
interested in having input to this process should contact Prof.
Tutiya. A Japanese TEI discussion group "JTEI-L" is also in
operation. To subscribe to JTEI-L, send a message containing
your name, professional background, and interests to
[log in to unmask]
Norway The International SGML Users Group archive at the
University of Oslo in Norway also shadows TEI drafts on its
anonymous FTP server, the
address of which is:
ifi.uio.no.
You can download copies of all current published drafts from
this server, in the directory
SGML/TEI
Filenaming conventions are the same as those used at the TEI-
L fileserver (uppercase only!) Discussion on the TEI-L
fileserver is also archived at this site, in monthly batches.
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