Re: [dita] proposal on "vocabulary" terminology

[Michael Priestley <mpriestl@ca.ibm.com>]

Sorry, another point:
The DTD and schema subterms would be
"vocabulary document type" and "vocabulary schema",
wouldn't they?

Michael Priestley
mpriestl@ca.ibm.com
Dept PRG IBM Canada  phone: 416-915-8262
Toronto Information Development

Erik Hennum <ehennum@us.ibm.com> 09/26/2004 11:13 AM

To:        "OASIS DITA TC" <dita@lists.oasis-open.org>         cc:                 Subject:        [dita] proposal on "vocabulary" terminology

Esteemed DITA Technical Committee Members:

Michael and I took an action item to resolve a terminology question about
using the term "vocabulary" for the construct that assembles
specialization modules (the equivalent at the abstract level for the DTD
or Schema shell at the declaration level).

In existing DITA articles and documentation, the term "vocabulary
domain" is used for domain type modules because these specialization
modules typically provide vocabulary specific to a subject domain. The
term "document type shell" is used for the construct that assembles
specialization modules.

The term "document type," however, is closely associated with
DTDs and thus could easily be misunderstood as indicating the declaration
level. Moreover, in a common usage within the XML community, the term "vocabulary"
seems associated with any set of elements. In that usage, the elements
of a topic type module might be considered a structural vocabulary.

To resolve these concerns, Michael and I would like to propose the following
enhancements to the formal DITA terminology:

* Where the formal terminoloy currently uses "domain" instead
use "vocabulary domain" 
* Where the formal terminoloy currently uses "vocabulary" instead
use "vocabulary shell"
* Add DTD and Schema subterms for "declaration module" and "vocabulary
shell declaration"

I've appended the modified full terminology.

What do you (especially Bruce) think?


Thanks,


Erik Hennum
ehennum@us.ibm.com


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At the model level, DITA has:

Element type - Defines the structure and semantics for a fragment of content.

Specialized element type - Defines an element type as a semantic refinement
of a base element type. The content allowed by the specialized element
type must be a subset of or identical to the content allowed by the base
element type.

Topic type - An element type that defines a complete unit of content. The
topic type provides the root element and, through contained element types,
substructure for the topic instances.

Map type - An element type that defines a set of relationships for topic
instances. The map type provides the root element and, through contained
element types, substructure for the map instances. The map substructure
provides hierarchy, group, and matrix organization of references to topic
instances.

Information type - An element that defines a unit of information. A topic
type or map type.

Type module - Defines a useful collection of element types. A type module
has a dependency on the type modules that, for its specialized element
types, provide the base element types. The corresponding declaration module
typically consists of a single file with element definitions. (See also
"declaration module.")

Topic type module - A type module that collects a topic element type and
its substructure element types.

Map type module - A type module that collects a map element type and its
substructure element types.

Vocabulary domain type module - A type module that collects element types
defined for a subject-matter area. These element types don't belong to
any one information type but, instead, can be used within the instances
of many topic and map types.

Type shell vocabulary - Integrates type modules to define a set of element
types that is complete for a descriptive purpose. The type shell vocabulary
also controls nesting of topic instances.


----------------------------------------
At the declaration level, DITA has:

Element declaration - The representation within a syntactic scheme (such
as DTD, XML Schema, or Relax NG) for an element type.

Declaration module - The representation within a syntactic scheme for a
type module.

Topic declaration module - The representation within a syntactic scheme
for a topic type module.

Map declaration module - The representation within a syntactic scheme for
a map type module.

Vocabulary domain declaration module - The representation within a syntactic
scheme for a vocabulary domain type module.

Vocabulary shell declaration - The representation within a syntactic scheme
for a type shell vocabulary. The vocabulary declaration includes and assembles
declaration modules.

DTD module - A declaration module in DTD syntax.

DTD shell - A vocabulary shell declaration in DTD syntax.

Schema module - A declaration module in XML Schema syntax.

Schema shell - A vocabulary shell declaration in XML Schema syntax.


----------------------------------------
At the instance level, DITA has:

Element instance - An occurrence of an element type in a document.

Topic instance - An occurrence of a topic type in a document.

Map instance - An occurrence of a map type in a document.

Document instance - A document whose meaning and validity are determined
by a type vocabulary.