@met="free" for the EGD

[danbalogh]

@michaelnmmeyer , I would like to have your input on how best we should add an option for encoding "free verse" in the EGD. This applies to verse where no consistent prosodic pattern can be noticed in the lines (i.e. the existing options don't apply), but the text is nonetheless structured as verse (which may be indicated by any combination of rhyme and assonance structures, metrical cadences or spatial arrangement).
The issue comes from a comment thread in the EGC, from which I paste some relevant bits here.

from Axelle:

• the value "free" for @met should be the default value for stanzas, so that when @met is not present, it is understood to be free
• accordingly, the prosodic patterns authority file does not need to list "free"

from Arlo:

• Our idea in EGC had been that with @met="free" combined with arabic numbering in <l>s would lead to display of metrical line numbering for every line. (If we discard @met="free", then it will be the absence of @met and arabic numbering on <l> that leads to said display.) In that display, it will no longer be desirable to number <lg>, because the <l> becomes the primary reference.

My proposal for the EGD:

• we should encode this kind of case as free verse
  • either by omitting @met or by explicitly adding @met="free" - either is fine for me, so let me know if (and why) one is better than the other
• the rest of the encoding does not change: @n must still be present on both the <lg> and on each <l> in the case of free verse
• the numbering of <l> will use Arabic numbers in this case, as e.g. for Tamil poems (EGD §2.3.2)
• the displayed heading could be "{number}. Free verse"
• the lines are to be displayed in the same way as Tamil verse, i.e. there is no need to implement any special display (such as showing the number of each <l>)

[danbalogh]

Note, the issue is not urgent on my side and we can wait with finalising the details until Arlo and Axelle have finalised how they handle this in the EGC.