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Subject: Re: [dita] the <data-about> element
Hi, Esteemed Committee: [Date Prev]
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In the productive exchanges about bookmap, Bruce's proposal about renaming the <data-subject> element to <data-about> may have got lost:
http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/dita/email/archives/200606/msg00040.html
While I'm loathe to reopen a completed item, I can see value in the proposed renaming:
* As Bruce notes, overuse of the term "subject" could create confusion between the subject of a property and subject classification.
* <data-about> will have the right associations for someone who has an RDF mindset (because rdf:about identifies the subject of a property).
As a reminder, the <data-about> element (aka <data-subject>) is a convenience for specifying a property somewhere other than within its container.
The following example maintains the list of books discussed by the topic in the prolog but identifies the specific chapters or stories within those books at the point of discussion within the body:
| <topic id="crossroad">
| <title>Crossroads and decisions</title>
| <prolog>
| <data id="ficciones" name="discussedBook" href=""urn:isbn:0394172442">
| <data name="author" value="Jorge Luis Borges"/>
| <data name="published" value="1944"/>
| </data>
| ...
| </prolog>
| <body>
| ...
| <p><data-about href=""#crossroad/ficciones">
| </data-about>The character faces a terrible choice in...
| </p>
| ...
| </body>
| </topic>
Thanks,
Erik Hennum
ehennum@us.ibm.com
To expand on the reminder, note that it is possible to use the <data> element to identify the object of a property that is also the subject of a nested subproperty. The following example indicates that the topic documents an AJAX library with a version date of June 19th.
| <topic id="ajaxLibrary">
| <title>Using the AJAX library</title>
| <prolog>
| <data name="documentedLibrary" href=""http://our.org/cvs/ajaxLibrary.js">
| </data>
| </prolog>
| ...
| </topic>
The example would need to use the <data-about> element if became necessary or convenient to specify this property for the topic but supply the property somewhere other than in the prolog:
| <topic id="ajaxLibrary">
| <title>Using the AJAX library</title>
| <body>
| ...
| <codeblock><data-about href=""#ajaxLibrary">
| </data>
| </data-about>...
| </codeblock>
| ...
| </body>
| </topic>
"Esrig, Bruce (Bruce)" <esrig@lucent.com> wrote on 06/14/2006 10:19:02 AM:
> Upon reviewing our method of explaning of the <data> element, I
> recommend that we revise our language to eliminate a confusing sense
> of the word "subject".... My proposal
> is to call the sub-element <data-about>....
>
> Could we address the proposed sub-element renaming at the next TC
> meeting? A decision in favor of a renaming could be made quickly if
> TC members find the following method of explaining the <data>
> element helpful, or if we have no strong advocates for the existing
> element name (<data-subject>).