OASIS Mailing List ArchivesView the OASIS mailing list archive below
or browse/search using MarkMail.

 


Help: OASIS Mailing Lists Help | MarkMail Help

dita message

[Date Prev] | [Thread Prev] | [Thread Next] | [Date Next] -- [Date Index] | [Thread Index] | [List Home]


Subject: Specialization of Attributes


Here's what I think that Erik wants:

Given:

programmertype specializes role
role specializes audience

A filter on "audience='javaprogrammer'" should match content marked
"programmertype='javaprogrammer'"

But consider the complete implications of this. If audience specializes
props then "props='javaprogrammer'" will also match. This implies that
ALL values live in a single namespace. direction="left" and
politics="left" would collapse down to the same thing. Nor is it just a
namespace issue. Remember that DITA treats two values in the same
attribute (OR) differently than it does two values in different
attributes (AND). With attribute specialization we have some kind of
in-between world where attributes are kind-of in the same attribute and
kind-of in different attributes.

Michael's proposal is that from a matching point of view it is totally
irrelevant that programmertype specializes role or that role specializes
audience. He says that the specialization information might be used
somehow but not by the standard matching algorithm. This seems too fuzzy
to me and also dangerous in that it encourages people to use the
undefined feature. When we come up for a meaning for it (perhaps based
upon Erik's ideas) then it will be too late to redefine the behaviour.
Better to outlaw it until we understand it.

This would also go for generic attributes.

I'm not even sure whether it is meaning to talk about properties as
having an "is-a" relationship to other properties. Mainstream
programming langauges certainly have no such concept. More often there
is some kind of a "derived-from" relationship but these are typically
quite complex. "Color" can be derived from "Red", "Green" and "Blue".
Age can be derived from "Date born". But now we're into the semantic
web, not DITA.

 Paul Prescod


[Date Prev] | [Thread Prev] | [Thread Next] | [Date Next] -- [Date Index] | [Thread Index] | [List Home]