TEI -> print: what solutions for a neat printed version of a critical edition?

[Marjorie Burghart-2]

Dear list,

What solution would you recommend to someone willing to publish a
traditional-looking printed version of a critical edition from a TEI
file, with features like:
- several layers of footnotes (one layer for textual variants, another
for biblical references, another for the sources, another for
"historical" notes, etc.)
- notes referring to line numbers in the text (instead of footnote calls)

It seems XSLT cannot do such a job alone. Is Latex the only other solution?
In this case, are there any packaged solutions, (TEI+XSL -> LaTeX ->
PDF/RTF/whatever) or at least tutorials that would make this basic task
accessible to TEI users?
If not, I suggest that developping such a tool should be a top priority
of the TEI community.

Best wishes,
Marjorie

--
Marjorie BURGHART
EHESS (pôle de Lyon) / UMR 5648
Histoire et Archéologie des Mondes Chrétiens et Musulmans Médiévaux
18 quai Claude Bernard
69007 Lyon - FRANCE

[Martin Holmes]

HI Marjorie,

XSLT can't do the job alone, but with a good XSL:FO processor it
probably can. For something with a layout as complex as this, I suspect
the open-source FOP would be a little inadequate (although it's been
making great strides in the last few years). You could probably use XEP,
though. It's not cheap, but it's good. So:

TEI -> XSLT -> XSL:FO -> XEP -> PDF.

Cheers,
Martin

On 11-05-02 02:58 PM, Marjorie Burghart wrote:

> Dear list,
>
> What solution would you recommend to someone willing to publish a
> traditional-looking printed version of a critical edition from a TEI
> file, with features like:
> - several layers of footnotes (one layer for textual variants, another
> for biblical references, another for the sources, another for
> "historical" notes, etc.)
> - notes referring to line numbers in the text (instead of footnote calls)
>
> It seems XSLT cannot do such a job alone. Is Latex the only other solution?
> In this case, are there any packaged solutions, (TEI+XSL ->  LaTeX ->
> PDF/RTF/whatever) or at least tutorials that would make this basic task
> accessible to TEI users?
> If not, I suggest that developping such a tool should be a top priority
> of the TEI community.
>
> Best wishes,
> Marjorie
>

--
Martin Holmes
University of Victoria Humanities Computing and Media Centre
([hidden email])

[Marjorie Burghart-2]

Le 02/05/2011 23:58, Marjorie Burghart a écrit :
> It seems XSLT cannot do such a job alone.
Sorry, I meant XSL-FO, not XSLT

--
Marjorie BURGHART
EHESS (pôle de Lyon) / UMR 5648
Histoire et Archéologie des Mondes Chrétiens et Musulmans Médiévaux
18 quai Claude Bernard
69007 Lyon - FRANCE

[Martin Mueller-3]

A (not completely) flippant answer may be "Look at TUSTEP." It is
apparently the world's greatest for creating printed version of very
critical editions in the best German manner. But its learning curve is
formidable.

I remember a conversation with Michael Sperberg-McQueen about the virtues
of Tustep in this regard. I also recall some stuff on the Tustep list
about becoming more XML friendly. I'm not sure whether TEI >Tustep is
possible. But if it were, you could certainly print it in any direction
and with any character set.



On 5/2/11 4:58 PM, "Marjorie Burghart" <[hidden email]> wrote:

>Dear list,
>
>What solution would you recommend to someone willing to publish a
>traditional-looking printed version of a critical edition from a TEI
>file, with features like:
>- several layers of footnotes (one layer for textual variants, another
>for biblical references, another for the sources, another for
>"historical" notes, etc.)
>- notes referring to line numbers in the text (instead of footnote calls)
>
>It seems XSLT cannot do such a job alone. Is Latex the only other
>solution?
>In this case, are there any packaged solutions, (TEI+XSL -> LaTeX ->
>PDF/RTF/whatever) or at least tutorials that would make this basic task
>accessible to TEI users?
>If not, I suggest that developping such a tool should be a top priority
>of the TEI community.
>
>Best wishes,
>Marjorie
>
>--
>Marjorie BURGHART
>EHESS (pôle de Lyon) / UMR 5648
>Histoire et Archéologie des Mondes Chrétiens et Musulmans Médiévaux
>18 quai Claude Bernard
>69007 Lyon - FRANCE

[Sebastian Rahtz]

On 2 May 2011, at 22:58, Marjorie Burghart wrote:

> What solution would you recommend to someone willing to publish a
> traditional-looking printed version of a critical edition from a TEI
> file, with features like:
> - several layers of footnotes (one layer for textual variants, another
> for biblical references, another for the sources, another for
> "historical" notes, etc.)
> - notes referring to line numbers in the text (instead of footnote calls)

It seems to me that the TeX community has been doing this for many
years, and have solved many of the typesetting problems already,
so I'd certainly consider starting there.

>
> In this case, are there any packaged solutions, (TEI+XSL -> LaTeX ->
> PDF/RTF/whatever) or at least tutorials that would make this basic task
> accessible to TEI users?

I maintain TEI to LaTeX stylesheets, with the expectation of processing
using XeLaTeX, and they come with a command-line script
"teitolatex" for Unix/Linux. But there's a lot more to do there
to get the right output. Good exercise  for our workshop in May!

The other alternative is to convert XML to InDesign. That'll be doable,
but I haven't seen full-scale critical editions done with it, with double layers
of footnotes and all.

I am not sure whether XSL FO can model the needed output or not. It's a cleaner
solution if you can, but needs a lot more work in the XSL. Swings and roundabouts.

Alternatively, just don't do it :-}
Save the trees and make web or ebook equivalents.
--
Sebastian Rahtz      
Head of Information and Support Group, Oxford University Computing Services
13 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 6NN. Phone [phone]

Sólo le pido a Dios
que el futuro no me sea indiferente

[Lou Burnard-6]

I agree (as usual) with most of what Sebastian says.

On the inDesign/TEI conversion front, I believe the chaps at Presses
Universitaires de Caen have considerable experience. But maybe you
already know that.


On 02/05/11 23:18, Sebastian Rahtz wrote:

> On 2 May 2011, at 22:58, Marjorie Burghart wrote:
>
>> What solution would you recommend to someone willing to publish a
>> traditional-looking printed version of a critical edition from a TEI
>> file, with features like:
>> - several layers of footnotes (one layer for textual variants, another
>> for biblical references, another for the sources, another for
>> "historical" notes, etc.)
>> - notes referring to line numbers in the text (instead of footnote calls)
>
> It seems to me that the TeX community has been doing this for many
> years, and have solved many of the typesetting problems already,
> so I'd certainly consider starting there.
>
>>
>> In this case, are there any packaged solutions, (TEI+XSL ->  LaTeX ->
>> PDF/RTF/whatever) or at least tutorials that would make this basic task
>> accessible to TEI users?
>
> I maintain TEI to LaTeX stylesheets, with the expectation of processing
> using XeLaTeX, and they come with a command-line script
> "teitolatex" for Unix/Linux. But there's a lot more to do there
> to get the right output. Good exercise  for our workshop in May!
>
> The other alternative is to convert XML to InDesign. That'll be doable,
> but I haven't seen full-scale critical editions done with it, with double layers
> of footnotes and all.
>
> I am not sure whether XSL FO can model the needed output or not. It's a cleaner
> solution if you can, but needs a lot more work in the XSL. Swings and roundabouts.
>
> Alternatively, just don't do it :-}
> Save the trees and make web or ebook equivalents.
> --
> Sebastian Rahtz
> Head of Information and Support Group, Oxford University Computing Services
> 13 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 6NN. Phone [phone]
>
> Sólo le pido a Dios
> que el futuro no me sea indiferente

[Nahuel ANGELINETTI]

Hi,

Is it a joke?
Why pay for a really expensive non-open software, instead to use some
Open Source software that do _exactly_ the same job?
Do you know FOP?
http://xmlgraphics.apache.org/fop/

We use it, and it just work…

bests,

Le 03/05/2011 00:14, Martin Holmes a écrit :

> HI Marjorie,
>
> XSLT can't do the job alone, but with a good XSL:FO processor it
> probably can. For something with a layout as complex as this, I
> suspect the open-source FOP would be a little inadequate (although
> it's been making great strides in the last few years). You could
> probably use XEP, though. It's not cheap, but it's good. So:
>
> TEI -> XSLT -> XSL:FO -> XEP -> PDF.
>
> Cheers,
> Martin
>
> On 11-05-02 02:58 PM, Marjorie Burghart wrote:
>> Dear list,
>>
>> What solution would you recommend to someone willing to publish a
>> traditional-looking printed version of a critical edition from a TEI
>> file, with features like:
>> - several layers of footnotes (one layer for textual variants, another
>> for biblical references, another for the sources, another for
>> "historical" notes, etc.)
>> - notes referring to line numbers in the text (instead of footnote
>> calls)
>>
>> It seems XSLT cannot do such a job alone. Is Latex the only other
>> solution?
>> In this case, are there any packaged solutions, (TEI+XSL ->  LaTeX ->
>> PDF/RTF/whatever) or at least tutorials that would make this basic task
>> accessible to TEI users?
>> If not, I suggest that developping such a tool should be a top priority
>> of the TEI community.
>>
>> Best wishes,
>> Marjorie
>>
>

--
Nahuel ANGELINETTI

[Sebastian Rahtz]

On 3 May 2011, at 10:33, Nahuel ANGELINETTI wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Is it a joke?
> Why pay for a really expensive non-open software, instead to use some
> Open Source software that do _exactly_ the same job?
> Do you know FOP?
> http://xmlgraphics.apache.org/fop/
>
Surely the section at http://xmlgraphics.apache.org/fop/compliance.html 
says it all. FOP does not implement all of XSL FO. For example, no
support for <float>, which is surely essential?


--
Sebastian Rahtz      
 Information and Support Group Manager
Oxford University Computing Services
13 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 6NN. Phone [phone]

Sólo le pido a Dios
que el futuro no me sea indiferente

[Nahuel ANGELINETTI]

Le 03/05/2011 11:53, Sebastian Rahtz a écrit :

> On 3 May 2011, at 10:33, Nahuel ANGELINETTI wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> Is it a joke?
>> Why pay for a really expensive non-open software, instead to use some
>> Open Source software that do _exactly_ the same job?
>> Do you know FOP?
>> http://xmlgraphics.apache.org/fop/
>>
> Surely the section at http://xmlgraphics.apache.org/fop/compliance.html
> says it all. FOP does not implement all of XSL FO. For example, no
> support for<float>, which is surely essential?

Don't think it's really essential, but can be usefull.
Anyway, are you sure XEP provide a full XSL:FO support?
I prefer pay a company ten thousand of $ to develop the float support on
FOP, instead to pay tens of thousand $ to give me the right to use their
software.

--
Nahuel ANGELINETTI

[Sebastian Rahtz]

On 3 May 2011, at 10:58, Nahuel ANGELINETTI wrote:

> Anyway, are you sure XEP provide a full XSL:FO support?

definitely

> I prefer pay a company ten thousand of $ to develop the float support on
> FOP, instead to pay tens of thousand $ to give me the right to use their
> software.


Well, yes, I sympathize. But in the last 12 years or so no-one has
actually stepped up to the plate and made that commitment to FOP.

Don't get be wrong, FOP is good, and I'd recommend anyone to use it
if they don't need all the features. I gave up on it personally because
I lost patience with XSL FO, and went back to TeX because I knew it
could deliver high-quality pages, but that's me being lazy.
--
Sebastian Rahtz      
 Information and Support Group Manager
Oxford University Computing Services
13 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 6NN. Phone [phone]

Sólo le pido a Dios
que el futuro no me sea indiferente

[Pierazzo, Elena]

In the past I have used EDMAC for this precise purpose:

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucgadkw/edmac/


It is a TeX/LaTEX library which works actually pretty well. Maybe one can
think of using:

TEI > XSLT > LaTeX/EDMAC > PDF

I never did it, as I used to write things directly in LaTeX, but I suppose
it should not be that difficult, actually

Elena
________________________________________
Dr Elena Pierazzo
Lecturer in Digital Humanities
Chair of the Teaching Committee
Department of Digital Humanities
King's College London
26-29 Drury Lane
London WC2B 5RL

Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
[hidden email]
Www.kcl.ac.uk/ddh





On 02/05/2011 22:58, "Marjorie Burghart" <[hidden email]>
wrote:

>Dear list,
>
>What solution would you recommend to someone willing to publish a
>traditional-looking printed version of a critical edition from a TEI
>file, with features like:
>- several layers of footnotes (one layer for textual variants, another
>for biblical references, another for the sources, another for
>"historical" notes, etc.)
>- notes referring to line numbers in the text (instead of footnote calls)
>
>It seems XSLT cannot do such a job alone. Is Latex the only other
>solution?
>In this case, are there any packaged solutions, (TEI+XSL -> LaTeX ->
>PDF/RTF/whatever) or at least tutorials that would make this basic task
>accessible to TEI users?
>If not, I suggest that developping such a tool should be a top priority
>of the TEI community.
>
>Best wishes,
>Marjorie
>
>--
>Marjorie BURGHART
>EHESS (pôle de Lyon) / UMR 5648
>Histoire et Archéologie des Mondes Chrétiens et Musulmans Médiévaux
>18 quai Claude Bernard
>69007 Lyon - FRANCE

[Marjorie Burghart-2]

Thank you all for this valuable feedback!

The bottom line seems to me:
- the free / freeware implementations of XSL FO have shortcomings
- TEI2LaTeX or TEI2InDesign seem to be the better options
- there is a lack of easily accessible tools for performing those
transformations (by "easily accessible tool", I mean something that a
run-of-the-mill Humanities scholar could use without the help of 10 IT
people)

I think it would be highly beneficial to the community if we could have
a tutorial on this matter somewhere on the Wiki, for example, and if
possible some form of pre-packaged tools. Sebastian's "teitolatex" is a
good starting point, but we would need some more packaging and / or
tutorials to explain how to obtain a camera-ready file from this LaTeX.

I suppose my insistance will seem old-fashioned and even pointless to
some, but do not forget that elaborate printed editions, with many
separate layers of footnotes etc., are the Holy Grail of scholars.
Offering this possibility to easily transform TEI files into an
elaborate printed edition would probably be an incentive to use the TEI
for people who need to prepare their own manuscript (like PhD
candidates, for instance), but also for publishers.


Best wishes,
Marjorie

--
Marjorie BURGHART
EHESS (pôle de Lyon) / UMR 5648
Histoire et Archéologie des Mondes Chrétiens et Musulmans Médiévaux
18 quai Claude Bernard
69007 Lyon - FRANCE

[Sebastian Rahtz]

On 3 May 2011, at 12:14, Marjorie Burghart wrote:
>
> The bottom line seems to me:
> - the free / freeware implementations of XSL FO have shortcomings

to be fair, I think we don't know whether the missing things in FO
are needed for your critical editions or not, and whether or not you can model
multiple footnote layers in XSL FO.

You may find a look at http://www.djdekker.net/ledmac/ helpful
to get an idea of the target if you want to try TEI -> Ledmac


> - there is a lack of easily accessible tools for performing those
> transformations (by "easily accessible tool", I mean something that a
> run-of-the-mill Humanities scholar could use without the help of 10 IT
> people)

many many r-o-t-m scholars use LaTeX setups all day every day on their own,
to my amazement, when you look at how primitive it seems in 2011.

The problem is that the TeX world has a cycle of edit/preview/edit in which
one makes many little fixes in a source to get a page just right. When a
translation from XML intervenes, it becomes much harder to make that little
linebreak or hyphenation which makes the difference between ok and beautiful.
It is actually very hard to make beautiful pages automatically straight from
a "semantic" XML like TEI.

So I am wondering what the tool _looks_ like? a workflow of TEI -> XSL FO -> PDF
can be nicely done within eg oXygen, but the TEI -> LaTeX -> PDF is rather harder,
as  LaTeX gives warnings and errors which you really want to read and act on (how?).
Equally, a  web service like OxGarage which concealed the whole LaTeX -> PDF
part of the work from you is probably going to be frustrating.
--
Sebastian Rahtz      
 Information and Support Group Manager
Oxford University Computing Services
13 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 6NN. Phone [phone]

Sólo le pido a Dios
que el futuro no me sea indiferente

[Marjorie Burghart-2]

Le 03/05/2011 13:33, Sebastian Rahtz a écrit :
> to be fair, I think we don't know whether the missing things in FO
> are needed for your critical editions or not, and whether or not you can model
> multiple footnote layers in XSL FO.
>
> You may find a look at http://www.djdekker.net/ledmac/ helpful
> to get an idea of the target if you want to try TEI ->  Ledmac

Yes, it might be possible for the multiple layers of footnotes, but I
highly doubt FO could pull out the footnotes referencing the line number
instead of a footnote call.
Besides, I should make it clear trhat I'm not asking because of a direct
personal need, it's just a feature that I feel important.

> many many r-o-t-m scholars use LaTeX setups all day every day on their own,
> to my amazement, when you look at how primitive it seems in 2011.

Fair enough :)

> The problem is that the TeX world has a cycle of edit/preview/edit in which
> one makes many little fixes in a source to get a page just right. When a
> translation from XML intervenes, it becomes much harder to make that little
> linebreak or hyphenation which makes the difference between ok and beautiful.
> It is actually very hard to make beautiful pages automatically straight from
> a "semantic" XML like TEI.
>
> So I am wondering what the tool _looks_ like? a workflow of TEI ->  XSL FO ->  PDF
> can be nicely done within eg oXygen, but the TEI ->  LaTeX ->  PDF is rather harder,
> as  LaTeX gives warnings and errors which you really want to read and act on (how?).
> Equally, a  web service like OxGarage which concealed the whole LaTeX ->  PDF
> part of the work from you is probably going to be frustrating.

Interesting question!
I am not familiar with LaTeX myself, but could it be a step-by-step
approach, with:
- the scholar customizing the set of tei2latex XSLT, adapting it to
his/her use of the TEI to produce a standardised output in "LaTeX for
nifty critical editions",
- this standardised "LaTeX for nifty critical editions" is then
processed by a third party tool, which could be a desktop application,
or a web service like OxGarage, as long as you can have some sort of
personalisation

But a solid tutorial covering the whoile process would be a nice first
step.

Marjorie, official pain :)

--
Marjorie BURGHART
EHESS (pôle de Lyon) / UMR 5648
Histoire et Archéologie des Mondes Chrétiens et Musulmans Médiévaux
18 quai Claude Bernard
69007 Lyon - FRANCE

[Sebastian Rahtz]

On 3 May 2011, at 12:53, Marjorie Burghart wrote:

>
> I am not familiar with LaTeX myself, but could it be a step-by-step
> approach, with:
> - the scholar customizing the set of tei2latex XSLT, adapting it to
> his/her use of the TEI to produce a standardised output in "LaTeX for
> nifty critical editions",
> - this standardised "LaTeX for nifty critical editions" is then
> processed by a third party tool, which could be a desktop application,
> or a web service like OxGarage, as long as you can have some sort of
> personalisation

there are two problems here.

  a) Doing the customization involves two distinct technologies, XSLT
and LaTeX macros, neither of which are at all easy for your ROTM scholar.

 b) what form does the "personalisation" take?

Most humanities scholars come with an inbuilt ability to say
"can I just…." and describe something which means a rewrite from the bottom up.

but no matter. worth a try.

The same caveats, of course, apply to the InDesign route.

>
> But a solid tutorial covering the whoile process would be a nice first
> step.


first we have to do it! and step 1 is  getting a TEI XML text which
exemplifies the situation.?
--
Sebastian Rahtz      
 Information and Support Group Manager
Oxford University Computing Services
13 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 6NN. Phone [phone]

Sólo le pido a Dios
que el futuro no me sea indiferente

[Marjorie Burghart-2]

Le 03/05/2011 14:33, Sebastian Rahtz a écrit :

> On 3 May 2011, at 12:53, Marjorie Burghart wrote:
>> I am not familiar with LaTeX myself, but could it be a step-by-step
>> approach, with:
>> - the scholar customizing the set of tei2latex XSLT, adapting it to
>> his/her use of the TEI to produce a standardised output in "LaTeX for
>> nifty critical editions",
>> - this standardised "LaTeX for nifty critical editions" is then
>> processed by a third party tool, which could be a desktop application,
>> or a web service like OxGarage, as long as you can have some sort of
>> personalisation
> there are two problems here.
>
>    a) Doing the customization involves two distinct technologies, XSLT
> and LaTeX macros, neither of which are at all easy for your ROTM scholar.

True, but I see XSLT as a mandatory companion to TEI. What's the point
of encoding in TEI if you can't display it with a minimum knowledge of
XSLT?

>   b) what form does the "personalisation" take?
>
> Most humanities scholars come with an inbuilt ability to say
> "can I just…." and describe something which means a rewrite from the bottom up.
>
> but no matter. worth a try.

You're awfully right! :)
Maybe a customization form, allowing the r-o-t-m scholar, after
uploading his LaTeX file to choose basic settings, like:
- page layout (size, margins)
- fonts and font sizes
- how the footnotes are references (footnote call or line number? if
footnote call, which style - roman character, arab numeral, etc. - for
which layer?)

There are tons of other possible parametres, of course, and ideally you
should be able to do more serious work "by hand", using the
customization interface only to get a quick and view of your work
without having to learn nifty tricks about LaTeX.


> The same caveats, of course, apply to the InDesign route.

Yes! I believe InDesign would be of interest for professional
publishers, more than r-o-t-m scholar

>> But a solid tutorial covering the whoile process would be a nice first
>> step.
>
> first we have to do it! and step 1 is  getting a TEI XML text which
> exemplifies the situation.?

Yes! I'll be happy to offer an XML sample, but I'm sure many other
people have some material.



--
Marjorie BURGHART
EHESS (pôle de Lyon) / UMR 5648
Histoire et Archéologie des Mondes Chrétiens et Musulmans Médiévaux
18 quai Claude Bernard
69007 Lyon - FRANCE

[Kevin Hawkins]

Since we're discussing non-open-source solutions (XEP, which is also
referred to by the vendor name, "RenderX"), let me also suggest
http://www.princexml.com/ .  I myself have not used it.

Kevin

On 2:59 PM, Martin Holmes wrote:

> HI Marjorie,
>
> XSLT can't do the job alone, but with a good XSL:FO processor it
> probably can. For something with a layout as complex as this, I suspect
> the open-source FOP would be a little inadequate (although it's been
> making great strides in the last few years). You could probably use XEP,
> though. It's not cheap, but it's good. So:
>
> TEI -> XSLT -> XSL:FO -> XEP -> PDF.
>
> Cheers,
> Martin
>
> On 11-05-02 02:58 PM, Marjorie Burghart wrote:
>> Dear list,
>>
>> What solution would you recommend to someone willing to publish a
>> traditional-looking printed version of a critical edition from a TEI
>> file, with features like:
>> - several layers of footnotes (one layer for textual variants, another
>> for biblical references, another for the sources, another for
>> "historical" notes, etc.)
>> - notes referring to line numbers in the text (instead of footnote calls)
>>
>> It seems XSLT cannot do such a job alone. Is Latex the only other
>> solution?
>> In this case, are there any packaged solutions, (TEI+XSL -> LaTeX ->
>> PDF/RTF/whatever) or at least tutorials that would make this basic task
>> accessible to TEI users?
>> If not, I suggest that developping such a tool should be a top priority
>> of the TEI community.
>>
>> Best wishes,
>> Marjorie
>>
>

[Sebastian Rahtz]

On 3 May 2011, at 13:47, Marjorie Burghart wrote:

> Maybe a customization form, allowing the r-o-t-m scholar, after
> uploading his LaTeX file to choose basic settings, like:
> - page layout (size, margins)
> - fonts and font sizes
> - how the footnotes are references (footnote call or line number? if
> footnote call, which style - roman character, arab numeral, etc. - for
> which layer?)
>
> There are tons of other possible parametres, of course, and ideally you
> should be able to do more serious work "by hand", using the
> customization interface only to get a quick and view of your work
> without having to learn nifty tricks about LaTeX.

like http://www.tei-c.org/release/doc/tei-xsl-common/style.html, in fact….. (note: needs lots
more…..)


--
Sebastian Rahtz      
 Information and Support Group Manager
Oxford University Computing Services
13 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 6NN. Phone [phone]

Sólo le pido a Dios
que el futuro no me sea indiferente

[Sebastian Rahtz]

On 3 May 2011, at 14:15, Kevin Hawkins wrote:

> Since we're discussing non-open-source solutions (XEP, which is also
> referred to by the vendor name, "RenderX"), let me also suggest
> http://www.princexml.com/ .

remembering the need for multiple layers of footnotes, I think this is
more or less a non-starter for the critical editions?
--
Sebastian Rahtz      
 Information and Support Group Manager
Oxford University Computing Services
13 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 6NN. Phone [phone]

Sólo le pido a Dios
que el futuro no me sea indiferente

[Ute Recker-Hamm]

As Martin Mueller already stated the "Tuebingen System of Text
Processing Programs (TUSTEP)" deserve to be considered seriously. The
powerful typesetting routines support up to 9 critical apparatuses,
layers of footnotes, endnotes, marginal notes, synopses (with
individual apparatuses), special characters and character sets etc. A
further benefit is that programming and typesetting interact very
smoothly and in various directions. Thus, you can enrich the original
XML-Markup with page or line references of the printed result
automatically, which is useful when electronic and printed editions
are supposed to accompany each other. TEI data (as all XML data) can
be imported easily into TUSTEP. It treats XML data string based but
not as node tree, which might be an advantage and a disadvantage as
well. The output is PS or PDF. Therefore TEI > XSLT (to prepare
encoding for TUSTEP with XML technologies) > TUSTEP > PDF or TEI <>
TUSTEP > PDF are possible workflows respectively. Once the typesetting
routine is set up for a specific edition it can be plugged as black
box into XML-environments (e.g. Oxygen) to "typeset-on-demand" during
XML-encoding.
The shortcomings: Learning TUSTEP is not a walk in the park as Martin
already mentioned and there are no prepackaged solutions or patterns
or cookbooks. A scholar with no or minor technical background will
need support to get things work.
For more information in English see
http://www.tustep.uni-tuebingen.de/tustep_eng.html, which covers a
list of scholarly edition made with use of TUSTEP.