RE: [dita] Book title in bookmap

[Robert D Anderson <robander@us.ibm.com>]

Hi Kevin - just to clarify, option 1 would still leave the title in the
map. It would just force us to come up with a specialization that fits it
into the bookmeta element (bookmeta is specialized from topicmeta). I think
this would be an awkward fit, especially given that we already plan to put
the title element into maps for DITA 1.2. So I think you are proposing a
fourth option - do not allow the user to set a title in the map?

On a broader note - I can see many places that the map will contain
translatable text. Offhand, several are:
- Transition text between topics. This is text that's only appropriate in
the book, to help the content flow from one topic to another. If this text
goes into the topics, the topics are not easily reusable outside of the
book.
- Index terms that are useful in this book, but are not useful when the
topic is reused in other locations
- Copyright statements
- Alternate titles for generated sections: if users include an <indexlist>,
they will get an index in the output. It most implementations this will get
a default heading of Index. If the user needs to change the heading for one
book, they can and should do so by giving an alternate in the map (through
the navtitle attribute, or through the navtitle element after DITA 1.2).
This is also useful when specializing to create a new type of index (Part
Number Index, Index of APIs, etc).

Like the book title, these are all specific to the book, so I am not sure
why we would try to keep them out of the bookmap. If we put all of this in
another file, the same things would be true of that file (one more item to
manage, version, and translate).

Thanks-

Robert D Anderson
IBM Authoring Tools Development
Chief Architect, DITA Open Toolkit
(507) 253-8787, T/L 553-8787


                                                                           
             "Farwell, Kevin"                                              
             <Kevin.Farwell@li                                             
             onbridge.com>                                              To 
                                       Robert D                            
             04/05/2006 10:35          Anderson/Rochester/IBM@IBMUS,       
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                                       RE: [dita] Book title in bookmap    
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           




Hello,

I'd vote for option 1. I'm not in favor of having any translatable
content in the book map. That just makes one more file to translate, one
more place to manage terminology, one more file to version, and one more
place mistakes can be made. If the book file is only a collection of
references to external content, the efficiency of the map is preserved.


The conflict is unavoidable. People using book maps now, with their
titles in attributes, will have to rework their files either way.

Kevin

-----Original Message-----
From: Robert D Anderson [mailto:robander@us.ibm.com]
Sent: Monday, April 03, 2006 2:09 PM
To: dita@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: [dita] Book title in bookmap


Don and I were working on the bookmap DTD, and ran in to a problem. When
we originally put the proposal together, we were planning for one large
release rather than the current 1.1 and 1.2 releases. As part of the
design, we counted on proposed feature number 11, which had already been
approved:
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/download.php/13734/IssueNumber11.ht
ml

This is the proposal to make translatable attributes into elements. One
of the items in that proposal is to add a <title> element to map, to be
used instead of the title attribute. The book model really needs this
title element in order to allow for more structured book titles, such as
title + library information. Unfortunately, feature #11 was moved to
1.2, so it will not be released with bookmap. I see three possibilities:
1. We force the title into the bookmeta element. This could work, but
will cause conflicts with the title element once 1.2 is released (and
bookmap is updated for the change).
2. We do that one part of #11 in 1.1 -- we just allow the title element
inside map. Leave the others for 1.2.
3. We let the 1.1 scope creep to include all of #11

I would vote for #2 - the partial implementation that brings the title
element into maps. Any other thoughts?

Robert D Anderson
IBM Authoring Tools Development
Chief Architect, DITA Open Toolkit
(507) 253-8787, T/L 553-8787