RE: [dita] DITA 1.2 Review Comment: Thoughts on topicgroup, navtitle, and locktitle

["Bruce Nevin (bnevin)" <bnevin@cisco.com>]

For the confusion, here's a proposed clarification:

In DITA 1.2, the <navtitle> element is optionally available within the
<topicmeta> element. This has the unintended effect of making it
possible to specify <navtitle> within a <topicgroup>. Since the
<topicgroup> element is meant as a non-titled grouping element, adding a
<navtitle> element to the <topicgroup> element has no defined purpose,
and processors must ignore the title. Processors may (but need not)
issue a message when ignoring the title.

/Bruce 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Doug Morrison [mailto:dmorrison@dita4all.com] 
> Sent: Thursday, August 12, 2010 5:03 PM
> To: dita
> Subject: [dita] DITA 1.2 Review Comment: Thoughts on 
> topicgroup, navtitle, and locktitle
> 
> 
>   In '3.1.2.2.4 topicgroup', a paragraph states that 
> "Beginning with DITA 1.2, you are able to specify a 
> <navtitle> element within the <topicmeta> element inside of a 
> <topicgroup>" and then seems to go on to say that the newly 
> introduced navtitle serves no purpose. Confusing.
> 
> It is further confusing to have a locktitle attribute to 
> control the use of this apparently purposeless element.
> 
> Furthermore, here and elsewhere, why use the name 'locktitle' 
> for the attribute? Does locktitle="yes" mean a title is being 
> locked in or locked out, and which title is being locked in 
> or locked out (navtitle or title)? Why choose a name for the 
> attribute that makes the user guess?
> 
> A name like 'usenavtitle' would remove the guesswork. The 
> attribute assignment usenavtitle="yes" means use the 
> navtitle, otherwise use the title from the referenced topic 
> (but there is no referenced topic for a topicgroup, so why 
> have the attribute for topicgroup?).
> 
> An extra attribute for topicgroup, such as 'editor-title', 
> would be useful to allow a string to be specified for display 
> in a map editor to identify the purpose of the group. 
> Presently there can be several topicgroups next to each other 
> with no clue about the contents or purpose of each. Even 
> opening up a group to see the contents can leave the purpose 
> of grouping them together a mystery. (I use a topichead with 
> a navtitle to identify the purpose but it would be better to 
> have a standard way of doing this so that conforming editors 
> can behave appropriately.
> 
> Sorry of this has been discussed to death before.
> 
> --
> Regards,
> 
> Doug Morrison
> Information Architect
> http://dita4all.com
> 
> 
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