Translating required-cleanup

[Robert D Anderson <robander@us.ibm.com>]

This question has come up a couple of times outside of the list, so I'd
like this group to address it:

The definition of the translate attribute indicates that it applies to the
current element and all nested elements, unless or until the value changes
in a nested element. We also have conventions that <draft-comment> and
<required-cleanup> should not be translated by default, because they are
not included in the output.

My understanding is that if a user places translate="yes" on a
required-cleanup element, this means that it should be translated. In this
case, the user knows best - the contents will be used for some purpose, and
should be translated.

What about this case?
<p translate="yes"> ...translatable text ...
  <required-cleanup> text in here </required-cleanup>
</p>

From the definition of @translate, it seems that requried-cleanup will
inherit translate="yes", making it translatable. It also seems that, in
most cases, this is not the desired behavior. I'm wary of making this an
exception to the rule, though, because exceptions just make DITA more
difficult to implement.

I think what's actually wanted is that required-cleanup should have a
default setting of translate="no", set within the DTDs and schemas. This
means that the only way to make it translatable is to explicitly set the
attribute on the element. Specializations that are used for translatable
content, such as <reusableContent>, could change the default to "yes" for
that element.

What do others think? I think to clear up the confusion, we have to do one
of the following (I would vote for the first):
1. Give required-cleanup and draft-comment a default of @translate="no"
2. Clarify that the current @translate behavior always applies - it even
inherits for elements that do not usually get translated
3. Provide a list of exceptions where @translate does not inherit

Any thoughts?

Thanks-

Robert D Anderson
IBM Authoring Tools Development
Chief Architect, DITA Open Toolkit
(507) 253-8787, T/L 553-8787