Programming Principles

This document lays out basic programming practices, style rules, and naming conventions for programmers working on the XSLT, HTML, JavaScript, and CSS in the LEMDO project. We do not yet conform to these principles, but we are committed to doing so in time.

Names for Variables, Classes, and Other Identifiers

All LEMDO programming code identifiers and file names should be constrained to the ASCII range.
All LEMDO identifiers should be as long as necessary to describe their meaning/function unambiguously, with information going from general to specific. Examples: note-editorial, title-monograph. This enables easier sorting, searching for, and comparing items which belong in groups.
Generally speaking, the following should all be lower-case with components separated by dashes:
CSS filenames (including SCSS source files).
JavaScript filenames.
Image filenames (for site chrome etc.; facsimiles etc. have their own naming conventions).
HTML custom attribute names (data-*).
Note that HTML data-* attribute values will often be derived from TEI element names and other similar constructs, so these may take whatever form is dictated by their source: <div data-el="persName">.
ECMAScript practices are different:
ECMAScript variable and function names should be lower camelCase (function getSomething()).
ECMAScript constants should be UPPERCASE_WITH_UNDERSCORES.
ECMAScript class names should be upper CamelCase (class NotePopup {...}).
Identifiers should be as descriptive as possible, with information going from general to specific, so: noteEditorial, titleMonograph.

Principles for HTML

Wherever possible, prefer HTML5 Semantic Elements over generic elements. Examples would be nav, section, main, article, header, footer.
The only elements requiring id attributes are those which need to be pointed at, linked to, or manipulated by ECMAScript.
To identify a category of element that needs to be styled (for example), prefer the use of data-* attributes derived from the source TEI wherever possible. So:
<span data-el="persName">
<span data-el="speaker">
<div data-el="ab">
This provides a solid link between the underlying TEI code and the HTML which then propagates easily into the CSS, making maintenance and debugging easier.
Reserve the use of style and class attributes for the propagation of primary source style description from the source TEI into the HTML. Examples:
<span data-el="stage" style="font-size: 80%;">
<span data-el="speaker" class="rnd_gothic">
Here the source element name is identified using the data-el attribute, so default house styling can be applied uniformly if necessary, but the appearance from the original source text is captured in a local style attribute or a class.

Principles for CSS

Following on from the principles above, site-level CSS (as opposed to text-level CSS derived from the TEI encoding of primary source features) should avoid the use of class attributes wherever possible. To select an element for styling:
First prefer its semantic tag name (header, footer, aside).
Next, use TEI-derived data-* attributes (<span data-el="fw" data-type="catch">).
If that is not enough, fall back on a selector based on position in the hierarchy or a semantic feature of an ancestor (q q{...}, div[data-el="speech"] aside).
Resort to classes only as a desperate measure.

Principles for XSLT

XSLT files are named in lower-case with underscores, and use the extension .xsl.
All root (master) XSLT file names end in _master.xsl.
All modules which are included or imported into master files have names ending in _module.xsl, and are stored in a modules subfolder alongside the master file(s) that use them.
XSLT files are documented using elements in the XSLT Stylesheet Documentation Namespace, as supported by the Oxygen XML Editor. They are also validated using project-specific custom Schematron in Oxygen, ensuring adherence to basic good practices and style rules.
Variable and function names should use lower camelCase.

Prosopography

Janelle Jenstad

Janelle Jenstad is a Professor of English at the University of Victoria, Director of The Map of Early Modern London, and Director of Linked Early Modern Drama Online. With Jennifer Roberts-Smith and Mark Kaethler, she co-edited Shakespeare’s Language in Digital Media: Old Words, New Tools (Routledge). She has edited John Stow’s A Survey of London (1598 text) for MoEML and is currently editing The Merchant of Venice (with Stephen Wittek) and Heywood’s 2 If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody for DRE. Her articles have appeared in Digital Humanities Quarterly, Elizabethan Theatre, Early Modern Literary Studies, Shakespeare Bulletin, Renaissance and Reformation, and The Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies. She contributed chapters to Approaches to Teaching Othello (MLA); Teaching Early Modern Literature from the Archives (MLA); Institutional Culture in Early Modern England (Brill); Shakespeare, Language, and the Stage (Arden); Performing Maternity in Early Modern England (Ashgate); New Directions in the Geohumanities (Routledge); Early Modern Studies and the Digital Turn (Iter); Placing Names: Enriching and Integrating Gazetteers (Indiana); Making Things and Drawing Boundaries (Minnesota); Rethinking Shakespeare Source Study: Audiences, Authors, and Digital Technologies (Routledge); and Civic Performance: Pageantry and Entertainments in Early Modern London (Routledge). For more details, see janellejenstad.com.

Joey Takeda

Joey Takeda is LEMDO’s Consulting Programmer and Designer, a role he assumed in 2020 after three years as the Lead Developer on LEMDO.

Martin Holmes

Martin Holmes has worked as a developer in the UVicʼs Humanities Computing and Media Centre for over two decades, and has been involved with dozens of Digital Humanities projects. He has served on the TEI Technical Council and as Managing Editor of the Journal of the TEI. He took over from Joey Takeda as lead developer on LEMDO in 2020. He is a collaborator on the SSHRC Partnership Grant led by Janelle Jenstad.

Navarra Houldin

Project manager 2022–present. Textual remediator 2021–present. Navarra Houldin (they/them) completed their BA in History and Spanish at the University of Victoria in 2022. During their degree, they worked as a teaching assistant with the University of Victoriaʼs Department of Hispanic and Italian Studies. Their primary research was on gender and sexuality in early modern Europe and Latin America.

Tracey El Hajj

Junior Programmer 2019–2020. Research Associate 2020–2021. Tracey received her PhD from the Department of English at the University of Victoria in the field of Science and Technology Studies. Her research focuses on the algorhythmics of networked communications. She was a 2019–2020 President’s Fellow in Research-Enriched Teaching at UVic, where she taught an advanced course on Artificial Intelligence and Everyday Life. Tracey was also a member of the Map of Early Modern London team, between 2018 and 2021. Between 2020 and 2021, she was a fellow in residence at the Praxis Studio for Comparative Media Studies, where she investigated the relationships between artificial intelligence, creativity, health, and justice. As of July 2021, Tracey has moved into the alt-ac world for a term position, while also teaching in the English Department at the University of Victoria.

Orgography

LEMDO Team (LEMD1)

The LEMDO Team is based at the University of Victoria and normally comprises the project director, the lead developer, project manager, junior developers(s), remediators, encoders, and remediating editors.

Metadata

Authority title Programming Principles
Type of text Documentation
Short title
Publisher University of Victoria on the Linked Early Modern Drama Online Platform
Series Linked Early Modern Drama Online
Source
TEI Customization created by Martin Holmes, Joey Takeda, and Janelle Jenstad; documentation written by members of the LEMDO Team
Editorial declaration n/a
Edition Released with Linked Early Modern Drama Online 1.0
Encoding description Encoded in TEI P5 according to the LEMDO Customization and Encoding Guidelines
Document status prgGenerated
Funder(s) Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
License/availability This file is licensed under a CC BY-NC_ND 4.0 license, which means that it is freely downloadable without permission under the following conditions: (1) credit must be given to the author and LEMDO in any subsequent use of the files and/or data; (2) the content cannot be adapted or repurposed (except in quotations for the purposes of academic review and citation); and (3) commercial uses are not permitted without the knowledge and consent of the editor and LEMDO. This license allows for pedagogical use of the documentation in the classroom.