Some background: this is in Manuscript Description, and the full para is:
"To cater for this diversity, here as elsewhere, these Guidelines
propose a flexible approach, in which encoders must choose for
themselves the degree of prescription appropriate to their needs, and
are provided with a choice of encoding mechanisms to support those
differing degrees."
In the context, I think "prescription" is intended to mean "the degree of constraint which the customized schema will impose on the encoder". If I'm right, then there's nothing wrong with it, although it might benefit from being expanded for clarity.
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I think both Martin's and Jens's interpretations of intent for this passage in the MS chapter are quite plausible at this point in the introduction to this chapter. Perhaps we should actually expand it to address the degree of description and the degree of prescription?
It seems to me that this discussion of degrees is not at all specific to manuscript description and could apply to most any chapter, in which case it doesn't actually belong here but should instead be in "About these Guidelines" (chapter AB).
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I see. The passage occurs on both p. 301 and p. 435. Otherwise, "prescription" (or "prescribe") is not used in this "schematic" sense in the Guidelines. A more readily understandable word would surely be "restriction".
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Some background: this is in Manuscript Description, and the full para is:
"To cater for this diversity, here as elsewhere, these Guidelines
propose a flexible approach, in which encoders must choose for
themselves the degree of prescription appropriate to their needs, and
are provided with a choice of encoding mechanisms to support those
differing degrees."
In the context, I think "prescription" is intended to mean "the degree of constraint which the customized schema will impose on the encoder". If I'm right, then there's nothing wrong with it, although it might benefit from being expanded for clarity.
I think both Martin's and Jens's interpretations of intent for this passage in the MS chapter are quite plausible at this point in the introduction to this chapter. Perhaps we should actually expand it to address the degree of description and the degree of prescription?
It seems to me that this discussion of degrees is not at all specific to manuscript description and could apply to most any chapter, in which case it doesn't actually belong here but should instead be in "About these Guidelines" (chapter AB).
I see. The passage occurs on both p. 301 and p. 435. Otherwise, "prescription" (or "prescribe") is not used in this "schematic" sense in the Guidelines. A more readily understandable word would surely be "restriction".
we have rephrased this to replace "degree of prescription" with "approach", to be more neutral, and cover both prescription and description.