DOCBOOK-APPS: Re: conditionalization of XML

["Eric S. Raymond" <esr@thyrsus.com>]

--vkogqOf2sHV7VnPd
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Disposition: inline
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

Norman Walsh <ndw@nwalsh.com>:
> What I don't understand off the top of my head Eric, is why you
> abandoned the XML approach when you abandoned XSLT.

Well...I could cite the 'else' problem you mention below, but the truth is
that when it became apparent that XSLT wouldn't cut it, I dusted off sgmlpre
because that seemed like the quickest way to get a working tool.  Took me
less than a day.
=20
> Why not process:
>=20
> <doc>
> <title>Preamble</title>
> <!-- this is the test on the manual page -->
> <para>Always issue this text.
> <phrase condition=3D"html">Issue this text if 'condition=3Dhtml' is given=
 on the
> command line.</phrase>
> <phrase condition=3D"pdf|ps">Issue this text if 'condition=3Dpdf' or 'con=
dition=3Dps'
> is given on the command line.</phrase>
> <phrase condition=3D"somethingelse">Otherwise issue this text.</phrase>
> </para>
> <para>Always issue this text.</para>
> </doc>

I've thought about this, actually.  Not so hard to implement with flex.
=20
> It's harder to write the "else" cases in this style, but I think a
> little creativity in the syntax of the condition attributes might
> alleviate some of those problems.

Propose a syntax?  All the ones I thought up were too ugly to live.  If
you can come up with anything better I might implement it.
--=20
		<a href=3D"http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/";>Eric S. Raymond</a>

--vkogqOf2sHV7VnPd
Content-Type: application/pgp-signature
Content-Disposition: inline

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org

iD8DBQE9pxLPrfUW04Qh8RwRAtbXAJ9tvzX7pzwVjtpw0poX1j0F06tO3gCgwF+I
9RCT7jzBtoIZxgaQGy10bWw=
=L1qS
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

--vkogqOf2sHV7VnPd--