[uf-discuss] hCite progress

[Jeremy Boggs]

On Nov 14, 2006, at 3:04 PM, Scott Reynen wrote:

> I'd say it's not a use case at all, as no on has really described  
> how this markup would be used by parsing applications.

Does the "it's" to which you're referring, Scott, mean hCite for a  
reviewed book in general, or marking up page numbers specifically?

If "it's" means hCite for the book in general, I'd say it is a use  
case, from my understanding of hCite. Especially if I'd like to  
extract the bibliographic data of a book that is being reviewed. I  
assume that's how the markup would be used by parsing applications,  
but I'll leave that question to those with more expertise than I.

If "it's" means markup for page numbers, then I can see your  
argument. I'm starting to see that page count might be out scope, but  
I'm still open to it.

> What exactly would we gain from this markup in terms of functionality?

If you're referring to my question about page numbers, perhaps  
nothing. I'm totally fine with leaving it blank, or not including it  
within hCitation; I point out reviews as another example of how  
they're used, so the community could consider it. I only want to make  
sure that, if in fact page count is out of scope, do we simple ignore  
it in the markup?

My understanding of why page counts exist in book review  
bibliographic information is that it is a legacy from older problems  
with knowing which book is the "right" book, or the book your  
referring to; I might refer to a version that has, say, 438 pages,  
but there might be another print run that had, for various reasons,  
420 pages. This is so much a problem anymore, so maybe it isn't a  
problem for hCite.

> If it's in a review and it's describing the item you're reviewing,  
> I'd say it belongs in hReview's description field.

I completely agree. From my understanding, that information included  
inside the DESCRIPTION field in hReview could be marked up with  
hCitation. hReview isn't, however, listed in the "Modularity" section  
of the citation page, though I imagine it could be.[1]

Is there a reason why hCite could not be used in a book review marked  
up in hReview?

> If there is a need to describe page count more specifically, I'm  
> still not clear what it is. Searching books by page count?

If marking up content to make it searchable is the primary purpose of  
hCitation, then I'd agree that page count is out of scope. This leads  
me to ask: is this the primary purpose of hCitation to mark up  
searchable information? I'm not sure that people search solely by  
other information that is included in hCitation (publisher, location  
of publisher,volume,edition).

Best,
Jeremy

[1] http://microformats.org/wiki/citation#Modularity