RE: [dita] Groups - Issue #12038 - Proposal: Acronyms and other Abbreviated Forms

["Grosso, Paul" <pgrosso@ptc.com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: gljoseph@yahoo.com [mailto:gljoseph@yahoo.com] 
> Sent: Sunday, 2007 December 09 2:08
> To: dita@lists.oasis-open.org
> Subject: [dita] Groups - Issue #12038 - Proposal: Acronyms 
> and other Abbreviated Forms (IssueNumbe12038.html) uploaded
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> Here is the HTML version of Issue #12038 - Proposal: Acronyms 
> and other Abbreviated Forms.

> Download Document:  
>
http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/dita/download.php/26361/Iss
ueNumbe12038.html

Much as I think this feature could be quite useful,
there are a lot of processing semantics defined here
that we haven't had to date in the DITA standard, and
that makes me quite nervous.

For example, the proposal says:

 The first time an abbreviated form is encountered,
 the processing tool should use the text in the
 <surface-form> element. Subsequent instances should
 be replaced by the contents of the <short> element.

How do you define first time?  First time in a topic,
first in the entire document?  First in input document
order or first in the published result (the stylesheet
might reorder things)?  If the latter, how is the processor
supposed to know what a subsequent application of the 
stylesheet is going to do?  What if the first occurrence 
is in the prolog or other element whose contents does 
not show in the published result?

While the DITA standard could say that the contents of
the <expanded> element is the expanded form, I don't
think it can say when the expanded form should be used.
That is a stylesheet issue.

paul