OASIS Mailing List ArchivesView the OASIS mailing list archive below
or browse/search using MarkMail.

 


Help: OASIS Mailing Lists Help | MarkMail Help

dita-adoption message

[Date Prev] | [Thread Prev] | [Thread Next] | [Date Next] -- [Date Index] | [Thread Index] | [List Home]


Subject: RE: Re: [dita] Finding descriptions of DITA attributes


Title: Finding descriptions of DITA attributes
Chasing attributes I have sometimes wished for a sort of "where used" index such as the "contained by" list that we provide with each element. It's all well and good to search on an attribute name and find the same too-terse (but it fits in a table cell) description repeated in a jillion places, and to find as well the description of one or more features that mention some aspect of its use in context, but a description in one place with the "contained by" or "where used" list would be most helpful.
 
    /B


From: donday@learningbywrote.com [mailto:donday@learningbywrote.com]
Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2010 8:17 AM
To: Doug Morrison; dita@lists.oasis-open.org; dita-adoption@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: Re: [dita] Finding descriptions of DITA attributes

This can be done by direct processing of the common attr definitions file, with a bit of logic to make contextual differences more explicit (@type for example). Worth a follow up discussion perhaps related to other post-approval artifacts.

Thanks Kris for submitting the review request.
Don

Sent from my HTC on the Now Network from Sprint!

----- Reply message -----
From: "Doug Morrison" <dmorrison@dita4all.com>
Date: Thu, Oct 14, 2010 3:44 am
Subject: [dita] Finding descriptions of DITA attributes
To: <dita@lists.oasis-open.org>, <dita-adoption@lists.oasis-open.org>

Hi Su-Laine,

I completely agree with you. Perhaps this could be a priority item for the improvements to OASIS-sponsored DITA adoption websites.

(Thank you for not suggesting changing all attribute names to something unusual like "xtrf". I have a strong suspicion that some nitpickers would regard this as a substantive change to the DITA 1.2 draft! ;) )
Regards,

Doug Morrison
Information Architect
http://dita4all.com

On 14/10/2010 01:41, Su-Laine Yeo wrote:
BECDDDED92C3B949A38F5BC4BF56D21F03F92EC0@van-mail.jena.local type="cite">

Hi everyone,

(Please note that this is not a request to change the DITA 1.2 draft :) )

It has come to my attention that if you are trying to understand the purpose of a particular DITA attribute, the language reference leaves something to be desired. If you want to know more about a particular element, there is an alphabetical list of elements. For attributes, there is no alphabetical list, and the documentation is in organized according to what the attributes are used for. So you sort of have to already know something about what an attribute is used for in order to find out what it is used for.

Doing a plain-text search on the attribute name is useful, if circuitous, for attributes with odd names like "xtrf". It is a lot less useful for attributes with English names like "base".

A hyperlinked alphabetical list of DITA attributes would be very helpful. Does anyone know of a quick way to generate one?

Regards,

Su-Laine

Su-Laine Yeo
Solutions Consultant

JustSystems Canada, Inc.
Office: 778-327-6356
syeo@justsystems.com

XMetaL Community Forums: http://forums.xmetal.com

For partners only: http://www.justpartnercenter.com



[Date Prev] | [Thread Prev] | [Thread Next] | [Date Next] -- [Date Index] | [Thread Index] | [List Home]