John McRae asked:
 
>Is SoftQuad's Author/Editor for the Mac Worldscript-compliant? Will the
>PC version work under Chinese or Japanese Windows?
>Ultimately, the question is whether there is any software with which I
>can do TEI tagging on Chinese texts. Anything out there?
 
-----The PC version of Author-Editor handles Chinese, though not without
glitches (line endings etc.)
 
-----The Mac version does not handle Chinese or Japanese; the cursor is
always off its true position, even with fixed-width fonts. So forget
Author-Editor on the Mac for CJK languages.
 
-----I am not aware of any software for SGML / TEI tagging on the Mac which
works for Chinese or Japanese.
 
-----That leaves little hacks with Hypercard, which still is the best
software tool for amateurs,  regardless of platform. On top of that,
Hypercard is widely available and probably the most
worldscript-compatible software that exists; one can even mix Chinese,
Japanese and Korean in the same field, and it handles scrolling and line
breaks without any problem.  Create buttons for all essential tags (in
general they take in the SelectedText and type back the same with added
tags). Such buttons can be very easily customized, even by users, and it
is thus easy to create a simple interface with a few buttons or a
special tagging menu or palette.  More tags can always be added at the
exporting stage.
 
-----Scholars who are very good at reading and understanding texts still
tend to know little about computers; thus  a two-stage approach might be
appropriate anyway:
1) Tagging for content (for example marking off place names, quotations,
etc.). Done by scholars using a custom Hypercard application (can be saved
as an executable program so that users do not even need to have Hypercard
on their machines).
2) Overall structural tagging (marking format changes, etc.). Can often be
done by a data administrator who may have less trouble being consistent
than an individual scholar
 
-----This separation of labor may also the preferred approach when several
people tag textual materials: limit the tasks of the scholars to stuff only
they can tag, and take care of the rest in a consistent and centralized
manner by data specialists.
 
-----If one structures one's Hypercard backgrounds and fields right, one
can export the data with lots of added tags (for example for paragraph
beginnings and endings) by creating custom buttons for various output
needs.
-----To get valid SGML, one must then willy-nilly move over to Windows
Author-Editor to get the big stuff right and validate and fine-tune.
 
-----Since the Windows version does have problems with line breaks in CJK
texts (breaking in the middle of Chinese characters etc.), such a combined
strategy of using Macs for the essential content tags (i.e., the work of
scholars) and using Author-Editor on Chinese / Japanese / Korean Windows
(the work of the data administrator) may indeed be a quite sensible
combination; though born from necessity rather than design, this kind of
platform-dependent division of labor has the additional advantage of
matching two types of people with the kinds of machines they tend to like
best.
 
 
Urs App
Associate Director
International Research Institute for Zen Buddhism
Hanazono University
Kyoto, Japan