This note presents some unpalatable but inevitable conclusions reached by the editors concerning the completion of publication of the Guidelines. As you will all recall, the draft table of contents published with each fascicle lists a total of 39 chapters. Of these, so far nineteen have been published and twenty remain unpublished. A full list is appended to this message. 1 Plan of Action After discussion, the editors propose the following course of action for the completion of TEI P2 and the publication of TEI P3. (1) TEI P3 will be a snapshot of the current state of the published Guidelines, including all fascicles published up to and including the 1st December 1993. (2) Work will continue on those chapters still not published by that date. These will continue to appear as further fascicles as and when they are complete. (3) During 1994, a reprint of TEI P3 (possibly renamed P4) will include any material published after the 1st December date, as well as error corrections or revisions. Various alternative plans are also described, with the reasons we recommend AGAINST their adoption. 2 Plan of Action 2.1 During the remainder of this month, the editors will complete and publish, in the usual way, as many chapters of TEI P2 as possible. The top priority will be placed on the publication of: VE (9) Base Tag Set for Verse AI (17) Additional Tag Set for Simple Analysis FS (18) Additional Tag Set for Feature Structures FD (28) Feature System Declaration DI (13) Base Tag Set for Printed Dictionaries FT (24) Tables, Equations, and Graphics PH (20) Transcription of Primary Sources TC (21) Additional Tag Set for Critical Apparatus and the revision of: TS (11) Base Tag Set for Transcriptions of Spoken Texts SA (16) Segmentation and Alignment All of the chapters listed above exist in a more or less acceptable draft. We therefore think it possible that all will be published in the next few weeks. It is even conceivable, with a favourable wind that other chapters may be published. At the end of November there will inevitably be a pause in work on P2, since MSM will be traveling to Tokyo and LB to Luxembourg for meetings, and then both will be in Boston for SGML '93 until 12 December or so. 2.2 Upon our return from these travels, we will proceed to prepare TEI P3 for publication. It will comprise: - all chapters published as of 1 December 1993 - temporary versions or stubs for the following 'absolutely essential' chapters in the fullest form we can manage, even though they will not have been published as draft fascicles of P2: CF (30) TEI Conformance MD (31) Modifying TEI DTDs NH (34) Markup for Non-Hierarchical Phenomena As far as we can foresee, it will NOT include the following chapters unless they miraculously complete themselves: LM (12) Base Tag Set for Letters and Memoranda CB (15) Composite Texts and Combining Bases ND (22) Additional Tags for Names and Dates IN (32) Negotiated and Non-Negotiated Interchange OS (33) Relationship of TEI to Other Standards CR (35) Algorithm for Recognizing Canonical References DT (36) Full TEI Document Type Declarations XW (37) Standard Writing System Declarations XT (38) Sample Tag Set Documentation Since the omission of both LM and ND would be very painful to our colleagues in the Association for History and Computing, there may be perceptible pressure for ND, at least, to complete itself miraculously, but no predictions are made on this subject. Neither can any guarantee be given that all the chapters listed as achievable by the end of November will in fact be included (notably FT, TC, and PH). 2.3 As soon as TEI P3 goes to the printer, the editors will resume work on the remaining chapters. In order to provide some assistance to those concerned with the relevant topics (and therefore those worst served by our plan of action), however, all chapters which possess full drafts will be released in their current form (modulo changes necessary to allow them to be printed) as working papers. The distinction between working paper and draft fascicle will be made explicit by the document numbering: for example, the draft for chapter LM might be numbered TEI AI4 D17, or perhaps TEI Dnn (where nn is some integer). 2.4 After their release as working papers, all unpublished chapters will be edited and published in the usual way as soon as possible, with the aim of including as many as possible in the next printing of the Guidelines, sometime in 1994. 3 Alternate Plans We considered and rejected the following alternative plans: - Simple drop-dead date: publish as TEI P3 all chapters published by 1 December 1993. Unpublished chapters are omitted and go into limbo. This is likely to be too disheartening to those responsible for, or waiting to use, chapters not included. - It Ain't Over Til It's Over: publish TEI P3 as soon as all chapters are done, and not before. (Possible modification: publish as soon as some 'important subset', e.g. everything but LO, IN, OS, CR, XF, XT are done.) This is the plan we have been following, and seems to risk extending the work indefinitely. - Washing Dirty Laundry: TEI P3 includes everything published by 1 December, remaining chapters are immediately published AS FASCICLES in their current form, without revision. This seemed acceptable to us, but inferior to the plan of publishing chapters in their current state only as working papers, and continuing to revise them before their publication as fascicles. - Branded Chapters: publish all chapters available in draft as part of TEI P3; those not yet fully edited to be marked as provisional (this is similar to a proposal made at Eynsham). This was felt to be dangerous for the good repute of the TEI, since it would involve including in P3 material we think is not of high enough quality to belong there. 4. Checklist of Chapters AB (1) About These Guidelines (13 Mar 1993) SG (2) Concise Summary of SGML (27 Aug 1993) ST (3) Structure of the TEI Document Type Definitions (7 April 1993) CH (4) Characters and Character Sets (17 Jul 1992) HD (5) The TEI Header (19 Aug 1992) CO (6) Tags Available in All TEI Documents (10 Dec 1992) DS (7) Default Text Structure (26 Mar 1993) PR (8) Base Tag Set for Prose (24 Oct 1992) VE (9) Base Tag Set for Verse (unpublished) DR (10) Base Tag Set for Drama (20 Aug 1993) TS (11) Base Tag Set for Transcriptions of Spoken Texts (23 Apr 1992) LM (12) Base Tag Set for Letters and Memoranda (unpublished) DI (13) Base Tag Set for Printed Dictionaries (unpublished) TE (14) Base Tag Set for Terminological Data (23 Dec 1993) CB (15) Composite Texts and Combining Bases (unpublished) SA (16) Segmentation and Alignment (26 Jan 1993) AI (17) Additional Tag Set for Simple Analysis (unpublished) FS (18) Additional Tag Set for Feature Structures (unpublished) CE (19) ... Indications of Certainty and Responsibility (17 Sep 1993) PH (20) ... Transcription of Primary Sources (unpublished) TC (21) Additional Tag Set for Critical Apparatus (unpublished) ND (22) Additional Tags for Names and Dates (unpublished) GD (23) Networks, Graphs, Digraphs, and Trees (17 September 1993) FT (24) Tables, Equations, and Graphics (unpublished) CC (25) Additional Tag Set for Language Corpora (11 March 1993) SH (26) The Independent Header (16 September 1993) WD (27) Writing System Declaration (20 September 1993) FD (28) Feature System Declaration (unpublished) TD (29) Tag Set Documentation (14 September 1993) CF (30) TEI Conformance (unpublished) MD (31) Modifying TEI DTDs (unpublished) IN (32) Negotiated and Non-Negotiated Interchange (unpublished) OS (33) Relationship of TEI to Other Standards (unpublished) NH (34) Markup for Non-Hierarchical Phenomena (unpublished) CR (35) Algorithm for Recognizing Canonical References (unpublished) DT (36) Full TEI Document Type Declarations (unpublished) XW (37) Standard Writing System Declarations (unpublished) XT (38) Sample Tag Set Documentation (unpublished) GR (39) Formal Grammar for ... Subset of SGML (4 Dec 1992)