Re: In addition to INS and DEL elements: UPD(ated)

About <UPD></UPD>, a tag for marking updated material.

Someone private-emailed me :

> could you say a bit more about how this works--or would?  
> would it call on another file to print text in a doc?  would it simply mark
> things for updating--and if this is the purpose how does it differ 
> from DATED?


First of all, this UPD idea arose years ago in my thoughts, when trying 
to compose a document within a group (each at its turn). The second writer/
proofreader will INSert new material, possibly DELete obsolete material,
and certainly UPDate (for any reasons, listed in my previous mail) some
material. The third writer/proofreader will thus know what was the exact
contribution of the first one and of the second one. And so on back to the
first one.
INS/DEL/UPD may be used as well by a solely writer facing many readers. He
writes a first draft of his thoughts, then get back on this work weeks later
and will probably want initial readers *and* new readers to know the history of
his text making (ins, del and upd).
See http://www.ucc.ie/xml/ as an example and how the author of this document
implements ins/del/upd :

| Paragraphs which have been added since the last version are shown in magenta 
| and prefixed with a pilcrow (¶). Paragraphs which have been changed since 
the
| last version are also shown in magenta but are prefixed with a section sign 
| (§). Paragraphs marked for future deletion but retained at the moment for 
| information are shown in pale gray and are prefixed with a plus/minus sign 
| (±).


Is UPD and DATED the same thing ? I don't think so. DATED is conceived
for composing a text once, with some sections of material visible
temporarily (or from/til a certain date). DATED material is composed
in advance (or just in time).
You can certainly simulated UPD'material with DATED, by choosing for
the "begin" the current date and nothing for "expires". But the semantics
of both tags are not the same & you'll not be able to comment the reason
of the UPDate (as with INS and DEL).



Note that UPD means "this material has been updated" and not "this material
is to be updated in some date in the future".  Maybe CHANGED would be a
better choice.


	Ay.

Received on Thursday, 21 August 1997 10:33:23 UTC