An Annotated List of Scripture Markup Standards
A list of Scripture versions in modern and "open" mark-up regimes. I've deliberately omitted the many proprietary formats in commercial systems because they're not freely available. I'm especially interested in which standards look like they may persist, and which ones have significant or complete Scripture portions available. I'd like to invest in building processing tools for these. Please
email me if you know of others! Since information tends to change over time, i've identified my last update to this list.
- The Open Scripture Information Standard (OSIS) is the leading standard, co-sponsored by the American Bible Society and the Society of Biblical Literature. OSIS 1.1.1 is the most recent release, from November 2002. A variety of Bible translations in several languages have been converted by the Crosswire Bible Society. and are available here: I was pleased to see the RSV is included. A few theological texts are also available. The Bible Technologies Group is hoping others will sign on to make their translations available in OSIS format, even if they're not free.
- XSEM was released by the Summer Institute of Linguistics in Sept 2001. Its main focus is supporting publishing, with provision for other views. They provide some "greeked" examples, but there's not a complete Scripture version available in this markup. The XML Cover Pages provides a good overview. There doesn't seem to be more recent activity: perhaps they are focused on supporting OSIS now?
- Theological Markup Language (ThML) is a relevant example, though it was designed for theological texts rather than Scripture. The Christian Classics Ethereal Libary has an enormous collection of theological works that are freely available. Some of the texts are available in OSIS format, though ThML still seems to be their standard.
- Since the English Standard Version is available through a web service, it's also a relevant standard. The markup style is focused on display and search, and includes footnotes and cross-references. You can't download the whole thing, but portions are freely available under certain conditions
Copyright 2004 sean boisen
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