Re: Content of fieldmarks

["Florian Reuter" <freuter@novell.com>]

Hi Patrick,

> Let's assume there is a <fieldmark> element that contains some content 
> and that there are not issues with overlapping elements (that is the 
> definition of well-formedness).
Unfortionately this assumption doesn't hold. Fieldmarks are property nested --- this has nothing to do with XML well-formedness.

> OK, if the plug-in fails, do I still see the content?
The text enclosed by the fieldmarks is *always* what the users sees. So there is not interop problem.

> Content, from DDE connections, for example, is stored so that if you 
> pass your document along to me, assuming the content is already present, 
> it will be preserved for me to view in an application without that 
> capability.
Hmm --- this has nothing to do with DDE...

> So, in the way you envision fieldmarks (or whatever comes out of this 
> discussion), does the content persist whether the fieldmark is processed 
> or not?
Its just a mark. You will always see what is enclosed by the marks. There is no difference in whether you have a plug-in or scripts which uses the mark or not.

> Or to put it another way, is a fieldmark in your view simply addition 
> processing of some content that is already otherwise part of the ODF 
> document?
Yes. Its like a bookmark. Just a mark of existing content. Nothing which changes the content --- its just been marked.

~Florian

>>> Patrick Durusau <patrick@durusau.net> 05/07/08 11:14 AM >>>
Florian,

I am still trying to understand the usage of fieldmarks.

Let's assume there is a <fieldmark> element that contains some content 
and that there are not issues with overlapping elements (that is the 
definition of well-formedness).

OK, if the plug-in fails, do I still see the content? Minus whatever 
processing the plug-in would have performed on it?

The reason I ask is that if we are writing a standard for interchange of 
documents, there really should be a graceful fall back for applications 
that lack certain abilities.

For example, in the current model, numbering for instance, is recorded 
so that if an application lacks the ability to number parts of the 
document, those numbers can still be displayed.

Content, from DDE connections, for example, is stored so that if you 
pass your document along to me, assuming the content is already present, 
it will be preserved for me to view in an application without that 
capability.

So, in the way you envision fieldmarks (or whatever comes out of this 
discussion), does the content persist whether the fieldmark is processed 
or not?

Or to put it another way, is a fieldmark in your view simply addition 
processing of some content that is already otherwise part of the ODF 
document?

Hope you are having a great day!

Patrick

-- 
Patrick Durusau
patrick@durusau.net
Chair, V1 - US TAG to JTC 1/SC 34
Convener, JTC 1/SC 34/WG 3 (Topic Maps)
Editor, OpenDocument Format TC (OASIS), Project Editor ISO/IEC 26300
Co-Editor, ISO/IEC 13250-1, 13250-5 (Topic Maps)