RE: [dita] Language specification items

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

Hi Jeff,

My thoughts on the topicref/topichead/topicgroup item are as follows,
subject to discussion -

* A topichead without navtitle is an error condition
* A topicgroup with a navtitle is an error condition (can be warned about
or the title may be ignored)
* A topicref with no navtitle, href, keyref is functionally the same as a
topicgroup
* A topicref with a navtitle but no href or keyref is functionally the same
as a topichead

That's based on a combination of my memory of how those elements were
defined, how I know some processing works, and how I know some people
author their maps or specializations. Currently, I think most tools don't
actually check for topichead or for topicgroup because the behaviors match.
The change here would be that if you do actually use one of those in the
error conditions, processors are expected to do something different than
they would for the base topicref. I don't think this would change any
behaviors for base topicref or other topicref specializations.

Does that make sense?

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

"Ogden, Jeff" <jogden@ptc.com> wrote on 08/11/2008 04:24:49 PM:

> Comments/questions below.
>
>    -Jeff
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Robert D Anderson [mailto:robander@us.ibm.com]
> > Sent: Monday, August 11, 2008 3:34 PM
> > To: dita@lists.oasis-open.org
> > Subject: [dita] Language specification items
> >
> . . .
> >
> > 2. We're adding a navtitle element to <topicmeta>. This means that
> > <topicgroup>, which allows metadata, will now allow navtitle to slip
> in.
> > Should the language specification say that navtitle has no meaning in
> a
> > topicgroup, in order to maintain its title-less identity?
>
> I'm pretty confused about topicgroup, topichead, vs. topicref in DITA
> 1.2.
>
> In DITA 1.1 a topicref without an href or navtitle was treated as a
> topicgroup (or perhaps it was really the other way around, a topicgroup
> was just a topicref without a navtitle or an href).
>
> In DITA 1.2 does this change?  Do we now recognize a topicgroup as a
> topicgroup based on the element name or class attribute value as your
> question suggests or do we still base this on the presence or absence of
> specific attributes?
>
> Does a topicref element without @navtitle, @href, or @keyref still act
> like a topicgroup?  Does the presence or absence of a navtitle element
> within topicmeta within a topicref change anything?
>
> @navtitle on topichead becomes optional in DITA 1.2 and the navtitle
> element within topicmeta within a topicref or specialization is also
> optional. Is a topichead without @navtitle and no navtitle element still
> a topichead or does it now act like a topicgroup?
>