Thanks for the fixings. Not sure what to do for consistency amongst the descs though.... @key appears with the foillowing associated descs: classRef/@key : the identifier used for the required class within the source indicated. dataRef /@key : the identifier used for this datatype specification elementRef/@key : the identifier used for the required element within the source indicated. macroRef@key : the identifier used for the required pattern within the source indicated. memberOf/@key : specifies the identifier for a class of which the documented element or class is a member or subclass moduleRef/@key : the name of a TEI module att.canonical/@key :provides an externally-defined means of identifying the entity (or entities) being named, using a coded value of some kind. Aside from the variation between verbal and nominal styles ("provides/specifies the identifier..." and "the identifier...") this suggests that there is a pretty consistent use of "identifier" for the thing being supplied by this attribute. If we really want to change that, we should do it for all them. The phrase "within the source indicated" is used presumably to remind you that the @source attribute is relevant here, so we could add that. Alternatively, we could follow the praxis of moduleRef and just say "the name of a TEI-defined datatype". Preferences? FWIW @ref appears with the following associated descs att.canonical/@ref : provides an explicit means of locating a full definition or identity for the entity being named by means of one or more URIs. dataRef/@ref : a pointer to a datatype defined in some datatype library g/@ref : points to a description of the character or glyph intended. which shows all three idioms, sigh. Note that the attribute which performs this function on moduleRef is there called @uri, sigh again. On 17/02/16 19:50, Syd Bauman wrote:

The description of dataRef/@key is "the identifier used for this datatype specification". This is confusing, if not outright nuts: the identifier used for this particular data reference element would be specified on @xml:id.

I'm of a mind that the three "what I'm referring to" attributes should have parallel descriptions. Something like:

key = The datatype being referred to from the set of provided or custom TEI datatypes, indicated by its identifier (e.g., "teidata.language")

name = The datatype being referred to from the datatypes found in _XML Schemas: Part 2: Datatypes_, indicated by its name (e.g., "gYear")

ref = The datatype being referred to in an external datatype library, indicated by a URI

although I'm sure those can be improved upon.

Meanwhile I've discovered that the dataRef.xml/elementSpec/listRef/ptr/@target pointed to the wrong section, and that in that file @ref was defined as a name, not a URI. I have fixed these corrigible errors, but did not want to muck with the wording on my own.