In message <[log in to unmask]>, Ineke
Schuurman <[log in to unmask]> writes
 
>In a new project we would like to use Author/Editor to create SGML
>version of a 1.000.000 words corpus (Dutch newspapers, ASCII input,
>SunOS 4).
>
>How many manmonths should we allot to it? We don't have any experience
>with Author/Editor at all, so we are completely in the dark with
>respect to the time needed.
 
I don't think the time for the project will be affected much one way or
the other by your choice of editing software.
 
I would suggest that in a project of this size you should look at the
possibility of pre-tagging your sources.  It should be possible to get
software to recognise the regularities in your ASCII input (paragraphs,
at least!) and convert it to minimally-tagged TEI-conformant documents.
Then your markers-up can concentrate on the intellectually challenging
part of the task, rather than the mechanical part.  I have applied this
technique recently to some seventeenth-century inventories and accounts
lists: I used OmniMark, but there is a range of conversion tools
available.
 
When you get on to using Author/Editor, it is worth putting some time
into designing the 'style sheet' so that the marked-up text looks as
palatable as possible on the screen.  You can assign different font
characteristics and colours to different elements.  Also, by default
each newly-marked element appears on a line by itself: this is usually
_not_ what you want!
 
Remember that A/E's internal working format (.ae files) is _not_ SGML,
and you must export your work to a 'real' SGML file.  I recommend that
you do this as part of your routine working practice.  (Apart from
anything else, if A/E decides your 'rules file' doesn't match the tags
in your .ae document, it will refuse to open it at all.  This happened
to me last week as a result of changes to the DTD.  Nasty - nothing else
can read an .ae file!)
 
You'll need to get a 'normalized' version of your TEI DTD before A/E's
RulesBuilder will look at it.  My NORMDTD program (available from
ftp://ota.ox.ac.uk/pub/ota/TEI/software/normdtd1.exe) is one way of
doing this.
 
Hope this helps,
 
Richard Light
SGML and Museum Information Consultancy
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3 Midfields Walk
Burgess Hill
West Sussex RH15 8JA
U.K.
tel. (44) 1444 232067