"Fragments of DITA content"

http://docs.oasis-open.org/dita/v1.0/archspec/conref.html

“The target of a conref must be in a valid DITA topic or DITA map. Fragments of DITA content do not contain enough information on their own to allow the conref processor to determine the validity of a reference to them.”

What is the basis for this statement? Could some describe how the first of these documents contains more conref-processor-relevant information than the second?

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<!DOCTYPE topic PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Composite//EN" "ditabase.dtd">

<topic id="topic_5"><title>Title</title>

<body>

<p id="reusable">This is a reuable paragraph.</p></body></topic>

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<!DOCTYPE p PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Composite//EN" "ditabase.dtd">

<p id="reusable">This is a reuable paragraph.</p>

Perhaps the spec could be clearer if it were explicit about what information the latter lacks.

As a best practice I actually prefer the former. The title element makes it easier to find the fragment. But a rationale based upon information management best practice is different than one based upon the needs of a conref processor.

Paul Prescod

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