#balisage — Public Fediverse posts

New mailing list to discuss making an international organisation for XML (IXO??), a new home. The future of declarative markup, perhaps.

https://lists.psu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=IOXML-L&A=1

An upcoming zoom call on 25th September is also open.

#XML #XMLisNotDead #XSLT #XQuery #XPath #foundation #XML_Foundation #declarativeMarkup

Discussions started around #Balisage2026 #Balisage this year.

New mailing list to discuss making an international organisation for XML (IXO??), a new home. The future of declarative markup, perhaps.

https://lists.psu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=IOXML-L&A=1

An upcoming zoom call on 25th September is also open.

#XML #XMLisNotDead #XSLT #XQuery #XPath #foundation #XML_Foundation #declarativeMarkup

Discussions started around #Balisage2026 #Balisage this year.

The #Balisage2026 conference is over, not for another year but forever.

We knew it was coming, but it’s still very emotional - it’s the last in a series of conferences i first went to in 1989.

Balisage did not end because markup is no longer a good idea - the organisers are retiring. Markup is more useful now than it has ever been.

#XMLisAlive #XML #Balisage

The #Balisage2026 conference is over, not for another year but forever.

We knew it was coming, but it’s still very emotional - it’s the last in a series of conferences i first went to in 1989.

Balisage did not end because markup is no longer a good idea - the organisers are retiring. Markup is more useful now than it has ever been.

#XMLisAlive #XML #Balisage

›Bibliografische‹ Daten zu den Digital Humanities, in #XML codiert und als Online-Datenbank aufbereitet. Das funktioniert dank #SaxonJS mittels #XSLT (3.0 !) lokal im Webbrowser -- als ›static website‹ ohne weitere Server-Interaktion ... (frühe Betaversion, Code und Daten alsbald auf GitLab).

https://dh-fx.de/dhc/dhc.html

#DHd #DigitalHumanities #Balisage #ProgrammingHistorian #ZfdG #GND

›Bibliografische‹ Daten zu den Digital Humanities, in #XML codiert und als Online-Datenbank aufbereitet. Das funktioniert dank #SaxonJS mittels #XSLT (3.0 !) lokal im Webbrowser -- als ›static website‹ ohne weitere Server-Interaktion ... (frühe Betaversion, Code und Daten alsbald auf GitLab).

https://dh-fx.de/dhc/dhc.html

#DHd #DigitalHumanities #Balisage #ProgrammingHistorian #ZfdG #GND

The end of an era (at least for me): This year's Balisage conference will be the last:
https://balisage.net/index.html
I've been to the conference from 2008 to 2012 and it was great fun. I will miss the #balisage folks although my focus of work has changed away from XML some years ago.

Call for papers: https://balisage.net/index.html

Information representation is about more than HTML and JSON...

Balisage is the most theoretical of the markup conferences (Nothing is more practical than a good theory). And this is the last.

No! While that tree stands, our scholar-gypsy is not gone! as Vaughan Williams quoted Matthew Arnold.

Don’t miss your last chance! to speak, to listen, to learn, to teach, to be.

#XML #MarkupMonday #Balisage2026 #Balisage #markup

Call for papers: https://balisage.net/index.html

Information representation is about more than HTML and JSON...

Balisage is the most theoretical of the markup conferences (Nothing is more practical than a good theory). And this is the last.

No! While that tree stands, our scholar-gypsy is not gone! as Vaughan Williams quoted Matthew Arnold.

Don’t miss your last chance! to speak, to listen, to learn, to teach, to be.

#XML #MarkupMonday #Balisage2026 #Balisage #markup

Two markup/XML conferences announced today

XML Prague - https://www.xmlprague.cz/ in... er... Prague... and

26th annual meeting of the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) https://tei2026.tei-c.org/ in Vancouver.

Don’t forget also Balisage - https://www.balisage.net/

#MarkupMonday #TEI #tei2026 #XML #XMLPrague #XML_Prague #conference #balisage #markup #digitalHumanities #techDoc

Two markup/XML conferences announced today

XML Prague - https://www.xmlprague.cz/ in... er... Prague... and

26th annual meeting of the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) https://tei2026.tei-c.org/ in Vancouver.

Don’t forget also Balisage - https://www.balisage.net/

#MarkupMonday #TEI #tei2026 #XML #XMLPrague #XML_Prague #conference #balisage #markup #digitalHumanities #techDoc

Yesterday i received a lovely card with a thank you note for speaking at conference, with a detailed comment praising something from the talk i gave.

It’s always been an honour and a pleasure to speak at Balisage, and I always love getting these cards.

#Balisage #Balisage2025 #xml #conference #thankYouLetter #classAct

Yesterday i received a lovely card with a thank you note for speaking at conference, with a detailed comment praising something from the talk i gave.

It’s always been an honour and a pleasure to speak at Balisage, and I always love getting these cards.

#Balisage #Balisage2025 #xml #conference #thankYouLetter #classAct

@ndw @linguacelta clearly i need to pay more attention at #balisage !

@ndw @linguacelta clearly i need to pay more attention at #balisage !

#balisage HC: More to do

Guidelines themselves need to be made more accessible.

Add more language support.

Some content from old site not in new site yet. Want to be selective and prune cruft.

Incrementally improve: which is now easier to do than in the Wordpress world.

#balisage HC: More to do

Guidelines themselves need to be made more accessible.

Add more language support.

Some content from old site not in new site yet. Want to be selective and prune cruft.

Incrementally improve: which is now easier to do than in the Wordpress world.

#balisage HC:

So: is this better?
A: It is for me [HC]

Seems better for users: these users are nerds, find editing Markdown easier than Wordpress. Lots of mental overhead.

Likely better support for internationallization.

Much more accessible.

#balisage HC:

So: is this better?
A: It is for me [HC]

Seems better for users: these users are nerds, find editing Markdown easier than Wordpress. Lots of mental overhead.

Likely better support for internationallization.

Much more accessible.

#balisage HC:

Documentation is separate repo, so mount as subproject and pull it in during build

#balisage HC:

Documentation is separate repo, so mount as subproject and pull it in during build

#balisage HC:

Documentation repository
TEI XML files
Needs to be integrated website in a couple of places, render to HTML

So extend 11ty to support TEI XML; use CETEIcean to do that

#balisage HC:

Documentation repository
TEI XML files
Needs to be integrated website in a couple of places, render to HTML

So extend 11ty to support TEI XML; use CETEIcean to do that

#balisage HC:

TEI guidelines has separate and complex build system with multiple targets, but does have to integrate with website (unlike the vault); same menu structures etc.

#balisage HC:

TEI guidelines has separate and complex build system with multiple targets, but does have to integrate with website (unlike the vault); same menu structures etc.

#balisage HC:
What wasn't managed by CMS?
TEI guidelines themselves
The Vault (but all static, fixed)
The Documentation repository

#balisage HC:
What wasn't managed by CMS?
TEI guidelines themselves
The Vault (but all static, fixed)
The Documentation repository

#balisage HC: recap

Handcrafted static HTML =>
Static HTML generated from XML =>
Dynamically processed HTML from XML =>
Same, managed by CMS =>
HTML goop =>
Static HTML generated from source

#balisage HC: recap

Handcrafted static HTML =>
Static HTML generated from XML =>
Dynamically processed HTML from XML =>
Same, managed by CMS =>
HTML goop =>
Static HTML generated from source

#balisage HC:

Sept 3rd 2024: New website!

Think it looks better.

Responsive sizing
Static site => vastly harder to hack

Built using Eleventy (https://www.11ty.dev)
Sources on github repository (github as CMS)
Most sources in Markdown now

#balisage HC:

Sept 3rd 2024: New website!

Think it looks better.

Responsive sizing
Static site => vastly harder to hack

Built using Eleventy (https://www.11ty.dev)
Sources on github repository (github as CMS)
Most sources in Markdown now

#balisage HC:

2019-2024 Wordpress still

Find it not nearly as easy as it was supposed to
Wordpress makes terrible markup
Every week new and exciting exploits so have to keep updating plugins

Proposed in 2023 to migrate to static site, ETA 1 year

#balisage HC:

2019-2024 Wordpress still

Find it not nearly as easy as it was supposed to
Wordpress makes terrible markup
Every week new and exciting exploits so have to keep updating plugins

Proposed in 2023 to migrate to static site, ETA 1 year

#balisage HC:

2019: More churn
Needed to find stable home => Huma-Num but ended up doing it in more of a rush than we had expected

#balisage HC:

2019: More churn
Needed to find stable home => Huma-Num but ended up doing it in more of a rush than we had expected

#balisage HC:

Time for content management systems

2007: mildly hacked OpenCMS (for next decade); edited via Java applet

mid 2018: Move to WordPress

Feb 8th, 2018: DISASTER!
Catastrophic disk failure (backups, but restoration took a very long time) moved to new infrastructure

#balisage HC:

Time for content management systems

2007: mildly hacked OpenCMS (for next decade); edited via Java applet

mid 2018: Move to WordPress

Feb 8th, 2018: DISASTER!
Catastrophic disk failure (backups, but restoration took a very long time) moved to new infrastructure

#balisage HC:

1999 1st consortium webpage:
Very straightforward HTML

2001 more professional appearance; tables for layout; "this was generated from XML master"

2005 new design; XML pages dynamically rendered with Apache Cocoon ("where possible")

#balisage HC:

1999 1st consortium webpage:
Very straightforward HTML

2001 more professional appearance; tables for layout; "this was generated from XML master"

2005 new design; XML pages dynamically rendered with Apache Cocoon ("where possible")

#balisage HC: History of the website

Background: TEI (Text Encoding Initiative) began in 1987, consortium formed in 1999

Parts of TEI website predate consortium:
(From archive.org) hand-crafted HTML

#balisage HC: History of the website

Background: TEI (Text Encoding Initiative) began in 1987, consortium formed in 1999

Parts of TEI website predate consortium:
(From archive.org) hand-crafted HTML

#balisage

(Re)building the TEI website: a bit of history and new directions—Hugh Cayless

https://www.balisage.net/Proceedings/vol30/html/Cayless01/BalisageVol30-Cayless01.html

#balisage

(Re)building the TEI website: a bit of history and new directions—Hugh Cayless

https://www.balisage.net/Proceedings/vol30/html/Cayless01/BalisageVol30-Cayless01.html

#balisage Q&A suggests looking at OpenLyrics as a target

#balisage Q&A suggests looking at OpenLyrics as a target

#balisage EB:
In text analysis course?

Requires encountering multiple cultures in text analysis: flat strings/token streams vs structuralists: useless to be exposed to that

More of an adventure for students

Continue to teach? I think so

#balisage EB:
In text analysis course?

Requires encountering multiple cultures in text analysis: flat strings/token streams vs structuralists: useless to be exposed to that

More of an adventure for students

Continue to teach? I think so

#balisage EB:
What did we learn?
Was it worth it?

Greatly enhanced command line upskilling
Grammar-writing encourages appreciation of meaningful structures
Learning as an art form

IXML vs regex search/replace
more elegant, harder, less sequential, more installations, more declarative

#balisage EB:
What did we learn?
Was it worth it?

Greatly enhanced command line upskilling
Grammar-writing encourages appreciation of meaningful structures
Learning as an art form

IXML vs regex search/replace
more elegant, harder, less sequential, more installations, more declarative

#balisage MS:

Look at iXML over ChordPro

Getting rid of ambiguity relied on special nullableText which also excluded meta charactrers

#balisage MS:

Look at iXML over ChordPro

Getting rid of ambiguity relied on special nullableText which also excluded meta charactrers

#balisage MS:

MEI focused on presentation of sheet music
MusicXML also to much so
ChordPro is non-XML markup, but closer to what we want and there is UltimateGuitar to ChordPro converter at https://ultimate.ftes.de

Discovered this after semester, but would have been much better for us

#balisage MS:

MEI focused on presentation of sheet music
MusicXML also to much so
ChordPro is non-XML markup, but closer to what we want and there is UltimateGuitar to ChordPro converter at https://ultimate.ftes.de

Discovered this after semester, but would have been much better for us

#balisage MS:

Weren't able to find good way to distinguish chord lines from text lines in iXML; just anything-that-isn't-eol

Ended up with "monster regex" in XSLT

#balisage MS:

Weren't able to find good way to distinguish chord lines from text lines in iXML; just anything-that-isn't-eol

Ended up with "monster regex" in XSLT

#balisage MS:

Source => iXML => XSLT => output XML | output lyrics| output chords

Initially looked at Music Encoding Initiative but that is focused on sheet music so didn't work well for us

#balisage MS:

Source => iXML => XSLT => output XML | output lyrics| output chords

Initially looked at Music Encoding Initiative but that is focused on sheet music so didn't work well for us

#balisage MS:

e.g.

Am Ammaj9 Am7 D/F# FMaj7 G Am

Lyrics below

Sometimes just lyrics, sometimes just chords