RE: [dita] Feature 12050--rationalizing href, format, scope, and typeattributes

[Erik Hennum <ehennum@us.ibm.com>]

Hi, Paul:

Regarding <navref> ...

"Grosso, Paul" <pgrosso@ptc.com> wrote on 07/05/2007 09:03:03 AM:
>
> The navref element ... would take more changes to bring
> this into line with the rest of the referencing attributes, and
> maybe that isn't worth the trouble.  On the other hand, if it can
> sometimes reference a ditamap and sometimes reference external
> non-dita content, perhaps we do need all the type, format, and
> scope attributes.

The <navref> element preceded the recognition that a <topicref> can refer sensibly
to a DITA map or external Eclipse TOC XML file.

Given that recognition, I'd suggest that the <navref> should have href, format, type
and scope attributes (with format defaulted to ditamap) and should deprecate mapref
in favor of href.

That way, once DITA supports local addition of attributes (which is a possible
windfall as part of the constraints proposal), the <navref> element could be refactored
as a specialization of the <topicref> element with an added, deprecated mapref
attribute -- which might simplify the base map vocabulary a bit in the long term.


Thanks,


Erik Hennum
ehennum@us.ibm.com