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Subject: DocBook topic element


The DocBook Technical Committee is considering adding features to DocBook to 
better support modular authoring and assembly of documents.  The Committee 
is developing an assembly structure that lets you point to DocBook files and 
elements, similar in function (but not form) to DITA maps.  A process would 
be run on an assembly to pull the various elements together for further 
processing as a document.

While it would be possible to assemble a document from existing DocBook 
elements, I submitted an additional proposal to add a new <topic> element. 
Such a topic element would be a natural candidate for assembly of modular 
units into larger documents.

A new topic element is needed because no other DocBook
element meets the needs for authoring standalone units of
information.  A section element is not appropriate, because
it implies a "section of something" with a larger context.
The article element comes closest, but it allows appendix,
acknowledgements, and colophon children, which are not
appropriate for a topic.  Also, article currently cannot
be a child of chapter or appendix.

The design goals of this proposal are:

a. To provide a designated element for authoring
modular content, each instance of which "stands alone", but
which also has relationships to other modules.

b. Design the topic element to be very general, so
that it can be adapted for many types of topics.

c. Make the addition of topic backwards compatible
with DocBook 5.0.

d. Clearly distinguish topics and sections.


Here are is the proposed design for topic:

1. The content model for topic is identical to that of section.

2. A topic type is indicated by a CDATA "type" attribute value.
For example, "task", "reference", "concept", etc.

3. A topic cannot include topic children.  Allowing a topic
to contain other topic elements breaks the semantic of
"standalone unit of information".

4. A topic can contain section children to subdivide its content
for clarity and ease of reference.

5.  A section element cannot contain a topic element.
Placing a topic inside a section implies the topic
depends on the section parent for its context.
It also hopelessly muddles the distinction between
topic and section.

6.  Allow topic as a child of book or part. This allows you
to author groups of topics in a convenient container.
Such topics could be siblings of chapters and other
component elements, the way article can be such a sibling.

7. Allow topic as a child of chapter or appendix, but not
as a sibling of section.  This also allows you to author
groups of topics in a convenient container, this time
grouped into a chapter or appendix.  There is an additional
constraint, though.  A chapter can contain either section
children or topic children, but not both.  This is to
maintain a clear distinction between topics and sections.


The Committee would like to allow some experimentation and comment before 
adopting the new element.  I include here a customization of DocBook 5.0 
RelaxNG (compact syntax) to add a topic element as described above.  The 
Committee looks forward to users trying it out and commenting on their 
experiences and ideas.

------------------ topic customization -------------------------------
default namespace = "http://docbook.org/ns/docbook";
namespace db = "http://docbook.org/ns/docbook";
namespace xlink = "http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink";
namespace s = "http://www.ascc.net/xml/schematron";
namespace a = "http://relaxng.org/ns/compatibility/annotations/1.0";


include "docbook.rnc" inherit = db {

db.toplevel.sections =
  ((db.section+, db.simplesect*) | db.simplesect+)
  | (db.sect1+, db.simplesect*)
  | db.refentry+
  | dbx.topic+

}
dbx.topic =
    element topic {
      dbx.topic.attlist,
      dbx.topic.info,
      db.recursive.blocks.or.sections,
      db.navigation.components*
    }

dbx.topic.type.attribute =
  attribute type { text }

dbx.topic.attlist = db.section.attlist  & dbx.topic.type.attribute?
dbx.topic.info = db._info.title.req

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Bob Stayton
Sagehill Enterprises
bobs@sagehill.net




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