DOCBOOK-APPS: objections to mediaobject with many imagedata

[Adam DiCarlo <adam@onshored.com>]

Jeff Beal <jeff.beal@ansys.com> writes:

> As for the general concept of having the stylesheets add an extension based
> on the format, it seems that specifying multiple alternate mediaobjects and
> selecting the right one for the output is a better approach.
> 
> <mediaobject>
>   <imageobject>
>     <imagedata fileref="myImageFile.eps" format="EPS"/>
>   </imageobject>
>   <imageobject>
>     <imagedata fileref="myImageFile.pdf" format="PDF"/>
>   </imageobject>
...

I don't know that I really agree this is optimal.  What I would like
(and what I use) is something more like:

 <mediaobject>
   <imageobject>
     <imagedata fileref="myImageFile.&img.fmt.suffix;" format="&img.fmt.name;"/>
   </imageobject>
 </mediaobject>

This way, it's the job of the build system to define the
img.fmt.suffix and the img.fmt.name and also convert the images as
needed (I use makefile dependencies for this).  This takes work off of
the author, where it shouldn't be, and onto the build system itself
(where it should be).  This also eliminates all the redundant tagging
and therefore makes the document itself more maintainable.

-- 
...Adam Di Carlo..<adam@onshore-devel.com>...<URL:http://www.onshored.com/>