History Question: Why does <data> not include <cite>?

[ekimber <ekimber@reallysi.com>]

I may have asked this question before, but I'm wondering what the historical
reason is for <data> not allowing <cite> and <xref>)?

In work I'm doing now I'm finding it annoying to not be able to use <cite>
in metadata without wrapping it in <ph>, where my requirement is to capture
metadata that includes mentions of other publications.

For example, I am modeling articles where the article has a "disclaimer"
paragraph that makes reference to the source of the article (e.g., a
citation of another publication).

This information is clearly metadata and, in the primary print presentation,
is presented after the article content (including any nested topics).

The workaround is to use <ph> within <data> to hold <cite> but that seems
like a silly requirement: why not just allow it directly since it can't be
kept out entirely?

Hmph.

I suspect there was some concern about having links in metadata, but I
wanted to make sure there wasn't some more compelling reason for the current
design. If there's not a more compelling reason I will likely push for
allowing <cite> and <xref> in <data> in DITA 1.3.

Thanks,

Eliot
----
Eliot Kimber | Senior Solutions Architect | Really Strategies, Inc.
email:  ekimber@reallysi.com <mailto:ekimber@reallysi.com>
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