query about format.sourcecode

[Baden Hughes]

Hi -

I've got a query about matters related to the element format.sourcecode

Currently the spec at http://www.language-archives.org/OLAC/olacms.html
assumes that software resources indexed by OLAC will be in source code
(and hence appropriate entries will be made under this tagset).

The recommendation is currently:

<format.sourcecode
code="PROGRAMMING_LANGUAGE">Comments</format.sourcecode>

There are several questions I have about this.

1) Do we need to clarify this even further as there are apparently two
distinct options from the archive contents I've been working with). One
is where the sourcecode requires compilation, the other is where
sourcecode is essentially a script (or series of scripts). Any
information about the "state" of the source code is likely to be
inconsistent at best across archives, and I suspect even within a single
archive. IMHO its relatively important to the end user of the OLAC
search engine as to what state the sourcecode is in (ie how applicable
is this code to the platforms I have access to).

2) In the case where software resources indexed by OLAC are distributed
in compiled form (ie not sourcecode) there's apparently not much more
room to encode this information either. Apart from not strictly being
something which belongs in a format.sourcecode element, the
recommendation I assume would be that you could standardise this again
by using the comment field, but the same consistency problem arises.
Again, IMHO its relatively important to the end user of the OLAC search
engine as to what state the sourcecode is in (ie can I just install and
run or is it more complex)

These two points may not represent large issues, but if the archives you
are dealing with have a lot of software which ranges from source scripts
in a range of languages, source for compilation for a range of
compilers, and compiled "ready to run" applications, the granularity of
this markup can be important and greatly assist with classification and
indexation of resources in an appropriate manner. Additionally, for the
less computer literate end users, this distinction is very important in
them effectively locating a resource which is appropriate to their
needs.

Baden