When we want to use the TEI guidelines (i.e. validate a document using a TEI schema), we actually need to generate a schema from all of that potential:
- we express the specific choices we want to make
- we hand those preferences to the roma process, and it uses them to select the particular pieces of the TEI we want, and it assembles them into a schema (and also generates custom documentation to accompany it).
Remember that we said the TEI itself is written in TEI, using a special module of elements for schema-writing? Now we get to the punchline: The customization file that we provide, that expresses our specific choices, is also written in this special kind of TEI. So when we write a customization, we are writing another TEI file. Most of it won’t look very much like any TEI you’ve ever seen, but it’s TEI nonetheless.
