Domain Specific Languages on editing papyri: the GreekSchools case study

Within the ERC AdG 885222-GreekSchools we aim to manage the edit of multiple papyrologic texts: diplomatic and literary editions and the corresponding apparatuses and their translations. To endow scholars with automatic consistency and coherence of editorial choices and to support the whole editing process, we leverage Domain Specific Languages (DSLs): a formal language definition in a bounded domain. Digital text editing can be handled in multiple ways depending on the editorial purpose. We identify four possible editing approaches to digital textual scholarship: (1) word processor; (2) structured text (e.g. XML); (3) GUI-centric; (4) domain specific language (DSL). Each of them has pros and cons. In particular we analyse five dimensions: familiarity, compactness, completeness, data elaboration support, and the need of technical training. With familiarity we refer to how much the scholar can avoid shifting his established working paradigm/environment. Compactness is the ratio between quantity of information and formalisation size. Completeness refers to the information the content represents. The capability to extract or deduce information from the data is addressed by data elaboration support. Finally, we consider important to evaluate the amount of technical training for text editing. For example, structured texts grant completeness of information, while requiring extensive technical training. In this context only the DSL approach encompasses all these dimensions while the other approaches compromises on some of them. We propose a DSL-based editor that will support and improve the editing workflow in the context of the ERC project.