[oXygen-user] Pretty Print <lb/> in Oxygen

Syd Bauman
Mon Oct 27 12:25:47 CDT 2014


A few hours ago Ute Recker-Hamm posted a wonderful question to TEI-L,
the main list for the Text Encoding Initiative.[1]

She basically asked "what do y'all do to get your physical lines, as
encoded with the empty TEI <lb> element, to line up nicely in
oXygen?".

I remember asking a similar question a few years ago, and vaguely
recall being told that manipulating the options under "Preferences >
Editor / Format / XML" (in particular the "Preserve space" and
"Default space" lists) should get format-and-indent to do the trick.
However, I recall that I never got it working to my satisfaction, and
when I look through the archives of this list now, I can't find the
answer I recall.

So what is "it" that I want format-and-indent to do? When given a
text that looks like this:

view A
---- -
      <p>I call our world Flatland, not because we call it so, but to make
      <lb/>its nature clearer to you, my happy readers, who are privileged to live
      <lb/>in Space.</p>
      <p>Imagine a vast sheet of paper on which straight Lines, Triangles,
      <lb/>Squares, Pentagons, Hexagons, and other figures, instead of remaining
      <lb/>fixed in their places, move freely about, on or in the surface, but without
      <lb/>the power of rising above or sinking below it, very much like shadows
      <lb/>—only hard with luminous edges—and you will then have a pretty
      <lb/>correct notion of my country and countrymen. Alas, a few years ago,
      <lb/>I should have said “my universe:” but now my mind has been opened
      <lb/>to higher views of things.</p>

I'd like it to end up formatted as it is now -- with each <lb>
starting a new line. If the desired line length were long enough, it
wouldn't be changed at all. If the desired line length were shorter,
it might look like this:

view B
---- -
      <p>I call our world Flatland, not because we call it so,
      but to make
      <lb/>its nature clearer to you, my happy readers, who are
      privileged to live
      <lb/>in Space.</p>
      <p>Imagine a vast sheet of paper on which straight Lines,
      Triangles,
      <lb/>Squares, Pentagons, Hexagons, and other figures,
      instead of remaining
      <lb/>fixed in their places, move freely about, on or in the
      surface, but without
      <lb/>the power of rising above or sinking below it, very
      much like shadows
      <lb/>—only hard with luminous edges—and you will then have
      a pretty
      <lb/>correct notion of my country and countrymen. Alas, a
      few years ago,
      <lb/>I should have said “my universe:” but now my mind has
      been opened
      <lb/>to higher views of things.</p>

What I *don't* want is for format-and-indent to make it look like
this:

view C
---- -

    <p>I call our world Flatland, not because we call it so, but to make <lb/>its nature clearer to
        you, my happy readers, who are privileged to live <lb/>in Space.</p>
    <p>Imagine a vast sheet of paper on which straight Lines, Triangles, <lb/>Squares, Pentagons,
        Hexagons, and other figures, instead of remaining <lb/>fixed in their places, move freely
        about, on or in the surface, but without <lb/>the power of rising above or sinking below it,
        very much like shadows <lb/>—only hard with luminous edges—and you will then have a pretty
        <lb/>correct notion of my country and countrymen. Alas, a few years ago, <lb/>I should have
        said “my universe:” but now my mind has been opened <lb/>to higher views of things.</p>

In fact, if I had my druthers, an input document that looked like
view C would come out of the processing looking like view A or B.

Note
----
[1] Those of you who are members of a TEI list at Brown can find it
    at https://listserv.brown.edu/?A2=ind1410&L=tei-l&F=&S=&P=64155.
    I have not re-produced it here because I did not get the original
    poster's permission to do so. (Not that I think it is illegal or
    immoral to re-post without such permission, only that it's rude.)


More information about the oXygen-user mailing list