suttacentral/bilara-data

add support for nested subdefinitions?

Opened this issue · 1 comments

sujato commented

Brahmali has requested subdefinitions in certain cases in the Vinaya, see list below.

I won't simply add these as-is, because nested block-level tags are tricky, in particular, ensuring that they properly translate to LaTeX.

I need to be persuaded that this is a good idea to justify the added complexity.

Currently, what the markup expresses is:

  • this is a term to be defined
  • this is the definition of this term

Now, this does not have any inherent assumptions regarding hierarchical nesting level. That is, simply listing the terms/definitions does not imply that they are at a single level: it just doesn't introduce the concept of levels.

So as i see it the current markup is fine: it perfectly expresses the idea that we have a list of terms and definitions.

If we were to introduce a level of subdefinitions we would have to solve the following.

  • do the HTML markup
    • this is pretty simple, HTML inherently allows nesting in most cases
  • transform for EPUB
    • in theory just the same as HTML, but in practice I have no idea what ereaders will make of this.
  • transform to LaTeX
    • I have no idea if LaTeX supports nested subdefinitions. Presumably it is possible, but it would have to be researched. Then the actual transformation would have to be programmed.
  • style appropriately.
    • nested indents rapidly become a problem on mobiles
    • note that the indent will in any case be ignored in side by side view
    • style in LaTeX

I don't think this is worth it. There comes a point of diminishing returns, and I think this is over it.

Change my mind!

second level of indentation required for sub-definitions, that is, sub-terms and sub-glosses:

  • bu-vb-pc4:2.1.9 - 2.1.16 (but 2.1.17 is a normal gloss and really a continuation of 2.1.8)
  • bu-vb-pc10:2.1.7 - 2.1.14
  • bu-vb-pc11:2.1.3 - 2.1.12
  • bu-vb-pc54:2.1.3 - 2.1.6
  • bu-vb-pc59:2.1.21 - 2.1.27
  • bu-vb-pc69:2.1.15 - 2.1.19
  • bu-vb-pc70:2.1.33 - 2.1.37
  • bu-vb-pc85:5.1.7 - 5.1.8
  • bu-vb-pd3:4.1.11
  • bu-vb-pd3:4.1.12
  • bu-vb-pd3:4.1.15
  • bu-vb-pd3:4.1.16
  • bu-vb-pd4:3.1.16-3.1.24
  • bu-vb-pd4:3.1.34-3.1.35
thesunshade commented

In either an oral or palm leaf tradition, would those sub definitions even be expressed in any way? I can't imagine how. I'm also not sure how indicating them with formatting would really aid the reader.