Some members of this list have kindly replied to my earlier
query about the possibility of turning TEI documents into clear
text.  Now I see that I should have been much more plainspoken.
 
I wish to use (or circumvent, if needs be) TEI without knowing
much about it ... just as anyone would be content to run a
Windows application without understanding a thing about its
program language.
 
 
The Oxford Text Archive allows the unrestricted downloading of
hundreds of integral texts (novels, plays, etc.), but all these
are written under TEI.  Which gives me, using an ordinary text
reader, the entire document plus a great many untranslated tags.
Some tags are obviously just line-feeds and paragraph breaks
which can be easily reproduced on a word processor; but others
require information not present within the file itelf.
    I'm hoping someone can tell me how to obtain or bypass that
missing information.
 
1: Would the DTDs be available at the same place, in a form
   I simply don't recognize on sight?  Might I be able to
   request the appropriate files?
 
2: Could it be that the information is actually contained in the
   body of each file and I have only to look in the right place?
   (I hold out little hope for this possibility, but I have to
   raise it anyway.)
 
3: Is it likely that these files are in fact intended solely
   for "subscribers" owning the necessary software and DTDs?
   Were they made freely accessible to the public merely through
   oversight?
 
 
My apologies if I am imposing on you, but perhaps you will
understand my desire to take advantage of the offerings in
these archives -- even if I must forego the extra advantages
offered by TEI.
 
 
Thanks,
        ---N.Mitchum  < [log in to unmask] >