[Date Prev] | [Thread Prev] | [Thread Next] | [Date Next] -- [Date Index] | [Thread Index] | [List Home]
Subject: Re: [dita] Conditional processing for <prop action ="include">
I am in the process of implementing DITAVAL support in my new DITA Link Management Service library. I will review Su Laine's comments in the context of my implementation. In my initial implementation work I found the documentation scattered but didn't detect the ambiguities Su Laine reports, but I may have been making assumptions that were unwarranted. Cheers, E. On 1/5/10 2:21 PM, "Su-Laine Yeo" <su-laine.yeo@justsystems.com> wrote: > Hi everyone, > > There is a substantive issue crossing multiple topics in the DITA 1.2 > draft spec, so I thought I'd bring it up here. The issue is the expected > processing behavior for the action="include" value on the DITAVAL <prop> > element. > > Background: > > There has been quite a bit of confusion in the DITA community about how > action="include" is supposed to work. People commonly expect that if > they have some content tagged as platform="macintosh" and other content > tagged as platform="windows", then if they want to produce a version of > the document for the Mac they can say <prop att = "platform" val = > "macintosh" action= "include"/>. In the OT this does not produce desired > results as "include" statements are ignored by the OT. > > The DITA 1.1 description is here: > http://docs.oasis-open.org/dita/v1.1/CD02/langspec/langref/ditaval-prop. > html and it says, "Include the content in output. This is the default > behavior unless otherwise set." It does not say whether "include" > statements are only for the benefit of people looking at the DITAVAL > file (which is how the spec has apparently been interpreted by the OT > developers) or whether "include" statements are supposed to be acted > upon by processors. Nor does it give any guidance as to how processors > should address cases in which there are conflicting "include" and > "exclude" statements. E.g. there is no guidance on what to do with > content tagged with platform="macintosh windows" if you have <prop att = > "platform" val = "macintosh" action= "include"/> and <prop att = > "platform" val = "windows" action= "exclude"/>. > > Issues in the draft DITA 1.2 spec: > > The draft DITA 1.2 spec covers filtering include/exclude statements in > the following topics: > - <prop> element: Same description as in DITA 1.1.. Ambiguous about > whether "include" statements are intended to be operative > - Conditional Processing: Says, ' If all the values in an attribute have > been set to "exclude", the attribute evaluates to "exclude" ' > which implies by omission that "include" statements are non-operative. > - <enumerationdef> element: Defines filtering behaviour for this element > in a way that implies that "include" statements are operative. > - <val> element: Has an example in which it implies the "include" > statements are operative. > > Question for the TC: > > I think our options are as follows: > 1) Change the spec to say that "include" statements are non-operative, > and remove "include" statements from all examples. > 2) Change the spec to say that "include" statements are operative. > Classify the level of expectation as may, should, or must. Define > expected behaviour in the case of conflicts between "include" and > "exclude" statements. Classify the level of expectation for > conflict-resolution behaviour as may, should, or must. > 3) Change the spec to say that the behavior of "include" is currently > undefined, and remove "include" statements from all examples. > 4) Status quo - make no changes. > 5) Variations on the above? > > My first choice is #3. Option #2 does not seem feasible for DITA 1.2. > Thoughts? > > Cheers, > Su-Laine > > > Su-Laine Yeo > Solutions Consultant > JustSystems Canada, Inc. > Office: 778-327-6356 > syeo@justsystems.com > www.justsystems.com <http://www.xmetal.com> > XMetaL Community Forums: http://forums.xmetal.com/ > > > -- Eliot Kimber Senior Solutions Architect "Bringing Strategy, Content, and Technology Together" Main: 610.631.6770 www.reallysi.com www.rsuitecms.com
[Date Prev] | [Thread Prev] | [Thread Next] | [Date Next] -- [Date Index] | [Thread Index] | [List Home]