From 41ea8e7bcdca22a4fefb1ed85030f7da448461dd Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Ralph Amissah Date: Mon, 3 Jul 2023 14:19:41 -0400 Subject: homepage updates, re-read --- .../spine-bespoke-output/html/homepage.index.html | 671 +++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 671 insertions(+) create mode 100644 markup/spine-bespoke-output/html/homepage.index.html (limited to 'markup/spine-bespoke-output/html/homepage.index.html') diff --git a/markup/spine-bespoke-output/html/homepage.index.html b/markup/spine-bespoke-output/html/homepage.index.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..017a083 --- /dev/null +++ b/markup/spine-bespoke-output/html/homepage.index.html @@ -0,0 +1,671 @@ + + + + + ≅ SiSU project sisudoc.org + + + + + +

≅ - SiSU for documents - structuring, publishing in multiple +formats & search

+ +

ℹ - A short description

+ +

+ +SiSU is an object-centric, lightweight markup based, document structuring, +parser, publishing and search tool for document collections. It is command line +oriented and generates static content that is currently made searchable at an +object level through an SQL database. +Markup helps define (delineate) objects (primarily various types of text block) +which are tracked in sequence, substantive objects being numbered sequentially +by the program for object citation. + +

+ +

Δ - SiSU project source

+ +

+ + Δ SiSU projects repo (git) +
+ - + https://git.sisudoc.org +
+

+ +

+ + Δ SiSU (scribe): document publishing (multiple formats + search) +
+ - + https://git.sisudoc.org/sisu +
+

+ +

+ + Δ SiSU markup samples in document pods for sisu (scribe) +
+ - + https://git.sisudoc.org/sisu-markup +
+

+ +

⌘ - SiSU Spine markup sample output

+ +

+To give an idea of how this works here is a small collection of documents marked +up for and generated by the software. The curation of topics for a collection of +specialized related documents would benefit from a consistently applied bespoke +ontology or thesaurus.
The documents presented are documents that have been +released under various creative commons licences, in the public domain, or the +author's work, with the exception of one that is under GPL and the old abandoned +Debian live-manual +

+ +

+ + ⌘ Authors + + (software curated from provided document header metadata)
+ - + https://sisudoc.org/spine/authors.html + +

+ +

+ + ⌘ Topics + + (software curated from provided document header metadata)
+ - + https://sisudoc.org/spine/topics.html + +

+ +

፨ - SiSU Spine search

+ + ፨ Search + + (granular search of text objects)
+ - + https://sisudoc.org/spine_search + +

+ +

+ + + +

+ +

ℹ - SiSU description

+ +

+ +Summary. An object is a unit of text within a document the most common +being a paragraph. Objects include individual headings, paragraphs, tables, +grouped text of various types such as code blocks and within poems, verse. +Objects have properties and attributes, of particular significance are headings +and their levels which provide document structure. A heading is an object with a +heirarchical value, that conceptually contains other objects (such as paragraphs +and possibly sub-headings etc.). Objects are tracked sequentially as they relate +to each other object within a document and substantive objects are numbered +sequentially, for citation purposes. Notably footnotes are not objects in +themselves, rather belonging to the object from which they are referenced, and +following their own numbering sequence. From heading objects (linked) tables of +content may be generated, and if additional metadata is provided book type +indexes can be generated that link back to the objects to which they relate. + +

+ +Unpacking this a bit further. SiSU as a concept independent of its markup +language and the parsers that have been implemented, is based on the following +ideas: + +

+ +Object-Centricity. On objects: In SiSU objects are the fundamental unit +from which larger constructs within a document and document itself is built. +Breaking the document into objects provides interesting possibilities. + +

+ +Objects are fundamental building blocks: Conceptually within SiSU, +objects are the building blocks or individual units of construction of a +document. Objects are usually blocks of text, the most common of which is the +paragraph, other examples include: individual headings, tables, grouped text of +various types which include code blocks and verse within poems, ... and as +mentioned an object could also, for example, be an image. Objects can be +formatted and placed as needed, providing flexibility and enabling multiple +types of representation across disperate formats and text recepticle, examples +including html, epub, latex (in the past mind-maps) and sql (populated at an +object level, and thereby providing search with that degree of granularity). + +

+ +Sequential. Objects have sequence: That objects have sequence, goes +largely without saying, this follows authorship, it is part of the definition of +a document and how a document is written to convey meaning. + +

+ +Object Numbers & Citation. Substantive objects are numbered for citation +purposes: Most objects within a document are meant by the author to be a +substantive part of the document. All such objects are numbered sequentially and +can be referenced thereby for citation purposes. +Object numbers provide the possibility of citing/locating text precisely across +different document formats and different languages (assuming the document has +been translated). For search it also makes it possible to identify precisely +where search criteria is met within in each document in the form of an index or +to view those precise text objects before deciding which documents are of +interest. Additionally the use of objects (and that objects are numbered) frees +the possibility to represent the document in the manner considered most suitable +to a specific document format wilst retaining its structural (and citation) +integrity). + +

+Characteristics. Objects have properties and attributes: Objects have +properties (and may have attributes). By properties I here refer to the +fundamental type of object, be it a heading, a paragraph, table, verse etc. +Attributes extend further and may include other things that one might wish to +associate with the object (examples not necessarily currently available/ +implemented in SiSU might include, formatting whether it is indented, or +metadata e.g. the associated language, or programming language for a code block) + +

+ +Document structure. Heading objects hold documents structure: Heading +objects hold documents structure through their heading level property. The types +of document of interest to SiSU have structure that is captured by the heading +level property. Headings are individual objects like any other with the +additional properties that (i) they may be regarded as containing the other +objects following them sequentially (until the next heading of a similar or +higher level), heading objects may include other headings (sub-headings), and +(ii) that they have a heirarchy, the root "heading" being the document +title.
A complication was intruduced to provide greater flexibility across +document output formats. Headings have two sets of levels, the level under which +substantive text occurs, this would be a chapter or segment level, and above +that in the heirarchy if needed are document section separators, book, section, +part. + +

+ +Non-objects Most but not all parts of a document are treated as objects. +Notably footnotes are not objects in themselves, rather belonging to the object +from which they are referenced, and following their own numbering sequence. From +heading objects (linked) tables of content may be generated, and if additional +metadata is provided book type indexes can be generated that link back to the +objects to which they relate. + +

+ +The Document Header. SiSU document have headers which contain document +metadata, at a minimum the document title and author. In addition the document +header may contain markup instruction (e.g. how to identify headings within the +document, in which case those headings need not be found and treated +accordingly) + +

+ +SiSU parsers have now been implemented in different programming paradigms and +languages a couple of times, the chosen markup has been left unchanged though +the document headers have been modified. + +This is the core of sisu, beyond which there is more but largely in the form of +choices based on ... existing output formats and of implementation detail, +deciding what attributes of objects, or within objects should be supported, +extending markup to allow for the generation of book indexes from if tagging +provided. + +

+ +

ℹ - SiSU Historical Descriptions

+ +

+Here is a description that has been used for the original sisu (scribe): +

+ +

+With minimal preparation of a plain-text (UTF-8) file, using sisu markup syntax +in your text editor of choice, SiSU can generate various document formats, most +of which share a common object numbering system for locating content, including +plain text, HTML, XHTML, XML, EPUB, OpenDocument text (ODF:ODT), LaTeX, PDF +files, and populate an SQL database with objects (roughly paragraph-sized +chunks) so searches may be performed and matches returned with that degree of +granularity. Think of being able to finely match text in documents, using common +object numbers, across different output formats (same object identifier for pdf, +epub or html) and across languages if you have translations of the same document +(same object identifier across languages). For search, your criteria is met by +these documents at these locations within each document (equally relevant across +different output formats and languages). To be clear (if obvious) page numbers +provide none of this functionality. Object numbering is particularly suitable +for "published" works (finalized texts as opposed to works that are frequently +changed or updated) for which it provides a fixed means of reference of content. +Document outputs can also share provided semantic meta-data. +

+ +

...

+ +

+SiSU is less about document layout than it is about finding a way using little +markup to construct an abstract representation of a document that makes it +possible to produce multiple representations of it which may be rather different +from each other and used for different purposes, whether layout and publishing, +scrollworthy online viewing/ reading, or content search. To be able to take +advantage from its minimal preparation starting point of some of the strengths +of rather different established ways of representing documents for different +purposes, whether for search (relational database, or indexed flat files +generated for that purpose whether of complete documents, or say of files made +up of objects), online or other electronic viewing (e.g. html, xml, epub), or +paper publication (e.g. pdf via latex)... +

+ +

+The solution arrived at is to extract structural information about the document +(document sections and headings within the document, available through pattern +matching or markup) and tracking objects (which primarily are defined units of +text such as paragraphs, headings, tables, verse, etc. but also images) which +can be reconstituted as the same documents with relevant object identification +numbers so text (objects) can be referenced across different output formats and +presentations. +

+ +

+SiSU generates tables of content, and through its markup the means for metadata +to be provided for the generation of book style indexes for a document (that +again due to document object numbers are the same and equally relevant across +all document formats). Per document classifying/organizing metadata can also be +provided for automated document curation. +

+ +

+... there have also been working experiments with sisu markup source, two way +conversion/representation of sisu document markup source in mind-mapping +(software kdissert was used for its strong focus on producing documents (now +apparently called semantik)); also po4a software for translators has been used +successfuly in its regular text mode for sisu markup in translation, (which is +more an attribute of po4a than of sisu, but) which is of interest due to +sisu/spine's object citation numbering being available across translations. Open +Document Format text (odf:odt), has been an output, but much more interesting +(and requested by potential users of sisu/spine) would be the ability of a word +processor to save text/a document in sisu markup, making alternative document +processing and presentations with sisu possible. +

+ +

+also worth mention, in the relatively long history of this project, there has +been work done on extracting hash representations of each object, that could +hypothetically be shared to prove the content of a document without sharing its +content, or of identifying which objects change; these hashes can also be used +as unique identifiers in a database or as identifying filenames if individual +objects are saved. +

+ +

+SiSU has evolved, the current implementation focuses on one primary use-case, +books and literary writings. However the concept on which it is based has wider +application. Here is a prevously posted souvenir from my encounter with an IBM +software evaluator in London June 2004 that came about through a chance +encounter with an IBM manager at a Linux Expo, who was curious about my interest +in Gnu/Linux with my legal background... on hearing that I also wrote software, +he suggested, maybe IBM should have a look at it. I was interested, the meeting +was set up... with an IBM, Software Innovations evaluator
His response after +the meeting: +

+ +

+"Ralph
Good to meet with you today, I was very impressed with your +software.
[colleague's name (also posted to an IBM colleague)] - in +summary - Ralph has built an application that runs on linux and takes ASCII +documents and pulls them apart in to the smallest constituent parts, storing +them as XML, PDF and HTML, the HTML are hyperlinked up so the document can be +browsed in its full form. the format and text data created is stored in a +database.
This has potential in any place that needs the power of full text +search whilst holding the structural concepts of the document i.e. legal, +pharma, education, research.. which ones we need to figure out, ..." +

+ +

+Special interest was expressed in the search implications of SiSU. To +paraphrase, the company has document management systems dealing with hundreds of +thousands of texts, these tell you which documents match your search criteria, +but cannot inform you where within a text these matches were found without +opening the documents. This is achieved through defining document objects and +making them the building block of the document, trackable document objects (that +can be placed back in the context of the document or corpus of documents if part +of a collection). SiSU's early design was to - abstract documents to their +structure, and identified objects, numbered in a citable way (as pointed out +document object hashes can be of use for the purpose). +

+ +

ℹ - SiSU Spine

+ +

+SiSU Spine is the new generator for documents prepared in sisu markup, written +in D as opposed to the original sisu which was first shared in Ruby. +

+ +

+Spine code has not as yet been made publicly available. +

+ +

+As compared with the original sisu generator sisu spine: +

+ +

+- Spine uses the same document markup for the document body, but uses yaml for +document headers (which contains document metadata and configuration details), +the original sisu has a bespoke markup for headers. +

+ +

+- Spine (written in D) is considerably faster at generating native output than +sisu (written in Ruby), on last test at least 60 times faster (what took 1 +minute takes 1 second; 1 hour a minute :-) (admittedly some time ago, ruby has +been getting faster, hopefully this is not over over promising). +

+ +

+- Spine produces fewer document outputs types than sisu (html, epub, (odt, +latex) and populates sql db for search) +

+ +

+- As regards non-native output, so far Spine has greater separation of what it +does and largely leaves calling the external program to the user, e.g.: latex +output is a native output in the sense that it is generated directly by spine, +but the pdfs that can be produced from these are produced through use of an +external program xelatex, which produces fine output but is a very much slower +process. +

+ +

+- (where both produce the same output type, generally) Spine generally produces +more up to date output format representations. +

+ +

+ralph.amissah www since 1993 ;-) +

+ +