Re: Proposal 13010: Glossary Sort As

[Su-Laine Yeo <syeo@interelement.ca>]

(resending as I didn't have permission to post to the Translation SC the first time)

Hi everyone,

I'm cc'ing the DITA Translation SC, as this feature is mostly intended to facilitate translation.

I think we could use more examples of what this feature would be used for, i.e. What things are sorted alphabetically in output, and in what types of publications? It's plausible to me that reference topics and definition list items should be sorted alphabetically in some publications, but I don't know what these publications are. The proposal template has the following questions, which I can easily answer for glossary entries but not for anything else:

- Who will benefit from this feature?
- What is the expected benefit?
- How many people probably will make use of this feature? For example, everyone, many, or
few.
- How much of a positive impact is expected for the users who will make use of the feature?

Best,
Su-Laine

> 
>> Hi Eliot,
>> 
>> That sounds good. Would it be OK with you if I add Tom Magliery to our
>> conversation? He's interested in the subject too.
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> Su-Laine
>> 
>> On 2011-07-05, at 9:14 AM, Eliot Kimber wrote:
>> 
>>> Su-Laine,
>>> 
>>> Looking at index-sort-as and the current design of <glossentry>, I think
>>> that the most direct solution would be:
>>> 
>>> 1. Define a specialization of <data> named something like "sort-as" whose
>>> value or content specifies the sort string, with same semantic as
>>> index-sort-as (specifies the sort key and combines with the nominal sort key
>>> of the element to be sorted to form a distinct matching key such that two
>>> items with the same base key but different sort-as values would be treated
>>> as distinct items where they would otherwise be merged, if merging is
>>> applicable).
>>> 
>>> The notion of "nominal sort key" would need to be defined, i.e., as the
>>> string that would be used to sort the element if sort-as were not specified.
>>> This will of course be different for different element types and may be
>>> application-defined, but obvious sort keys would be topic titles, definition
>>> list terms, table cells within specific table rows, and so on. We would have
>>> to decide which of title, navtitle, and search title would be used as the
>>> base sort key for topics when two or more are specified for the same topic,
>>> but I would think navtitle would be the most appropriate choice.
>>> 
>>> The <sort-as> element is intended to be a direct child of the element that
>>> contains the sort key, e.g., <title>, <dt>, etc., as opposed to being used
>>> in topic metadata.
>>> 
>>> <sort-as> would be a separate domain within the base DITA vocabulary set.
>>> 
>>> 2. Define a specialization of <sort-as>, <glossary-sort-as>, for specific
>>> use within <glossterm>, e.g.:
>>> 
>>> <glossentry id="entry-01">
>>> <glossterm>
>>>  <glossary-sort-as>eight</glossary-sort-as>
>>>  <text>8-Mile</text>
>>> </glossterm>
>>> <glossdef>
>>> <p>A famous road in Detroit.</p>
>>> </glossentry>
>>> 
>>> <glossary-sort-as> would be an addition to the glossentry topic type.
>>> 
>>> This approach would satisfy both your direct requirement to make glossary
>>> sorting both possible and the markup as obvious as possible and satisfy my
>>> more general requirement for a general sorting control.
>>> 
>>> Cheers,
>>> 
>>> E.
>>> 
>>> --
>>> Eliot Kimber
>>> Senior Solutions Architect
>>> "Bringing Strategy, Content, and Technology Together"
>>> Main: 512.554.9368
>>> www.reallysi.com
>>> www.rsuitecms.com
>>> 
>> 
>> Su-Laine Yeo
>> Interelement Consulting: Communications and design for technology adoption
>> www.interelement.ca
>> syeo@interelement.ca
>> landline: (604) 451-8805
>> cell: (604) 723-9182
>> 
> 
> -- 
> Eliot Kimber
> Senior Solutions Architect
> "Bringing Strategy, Content, and Technology Together"
> Main: 512.554.9368
> www.reallysi.com
> www.rsuitecms.com
>