Issue: <text> should be allowed just about everywhere and it's not

[ekimber <ekimber@reallysi.com>]

On dita-users was raised this question:

> We have a writer that would like to conref parts of filepath contents. The
> logical way to do this is to conref on <ph> inside <filepath>. Unfortunately
> the DTD does not allow <ph> inside <filepath> in DITA 1.1

The 1.2 <text> element was intended to solve exactly this problem.

However, looking at the declaration for filepath in the 1.2 declarations,
<text> is not allowed.

In reviewing proposal 12020, it says:

"The text element should be added to any element which allows #PCDATA but
does not allow ph or keyword."

It then lists elements that meet this criteria. However, filepath is not
listed even though it does not allow ph.

That is, there is requirement is that if an element does not allow at least
ph, it must allow <text>, because it would be wrong, I think, to use
<keyword> purely for the purpose of enabling conref to text fragments that
are not otherwise semantically keywords, which is the case in the original
poster's case 

That is, they specifically see using keyword in this case as tag abuse, and
I agree. For example, many presentation styles will make keywords bold by
default, which would definitely not be the desired result in this case
(using conref to a keyword just to build up a file path from common parts).

So I think that proposal 12020 was either in error in that the only relevant
variable is the presence of <ph>, not <keyword>.

The implication of my analysis is that any element type that does not allow
<ph> in 1.1 must allow <text>, regardless of whether or not <keyword> is
allowed.

Cheers,

E.



----
Eliot Kimber | Senior Solutions Architect | Really Strategies, Inc.
email:  ekimber@reallysi.com <mailto:ekimber@reallysi.com>
office: 610.631.6770 | cell: 512.554.9368
2570 Boulevard of the Generals | Suite 213 | Audubon, PA 19403
www.reallysi.com <http://www.reallysi.com>  | http://blog.reallysi.com
<http://blog.reallysi.com> | www.rsuitecms.com <http://www.rsuitecms.com>