[Buddha-l] The state of buddha-l: a brief report

[Franz Metcalf]

Dear Alberto,

You wrote,

> I confess that I'm still experimenting, not only with notes and  
> references but with other possible stylistic improvements as well as  
> improvements to accessibility. I'd like non-specialists to be able  
> to follow what I say.

Yes, a noble goal. You also point out one advantage of paperless  
publishing: the ability to quote texts multiple times. I could see  
this being especially useful with classical Chinese texts that are so  
susceptible to multiple readings. One might quote the characters, then  
translate those characters both with and without the interpolations  
necessary to create English out of them.

Another obvious idea: one might make the quote itself the citation.  
That is, one could click on the quote (or some part of it) and be  
taken directly to the bibliographic note or even the text itself  
within its original context.

But this leads me to wonder if you are planning to--or are allowed to-- 
present your dissertation in electronic form these days. If so, old  
conventions must fall and new ones arise like the (mandatory Buddhist  
content) mind-states that make up our lives.

Franz