RE: Review C: Comments about the "Element-by-element" recommendations for translation

["Burns, William" <william.burns@hp.com>]

I will take a look and see what I can add.

 

Bill

william.burns@hp.com

(208) 794-5709

 

From: dita@lists.oasis-open.org <dita@lists.oasis-open.org> On Behalf Of kris eberleinconsulting.com
Sent: Tuesday, October 11, 2022 7:55 AM
To: DITA Technical Committee (dita@lists.oasis-open.org) <dita@lists.oasis-open.org>
Subject: [dita] Review C: Comments about the "Element-by-element" recommendations for translation

 

CAUTION: External Email

Thanks to Dawn and Eliot for giving this topic a close reading. Here is a high-level overview of their comments (and my take on them):

• Information design of the tables needs a rework. Because the same design is used for almost all tables, there are columns that are not applicable or do not contain any content.
• The headers for the columns are not explained clearly; they are confusing and unclear.
• The table cells contain formatting – bold highlighting and upper-case letters that is inconsistent AND not explained clearly.
• It’s unclear WHY these tables even need to have a column about whether an element typically in rendered as a block or inline element when presented to a reader.
• “Subflow” is not clearly explained.
• The value of “block (metadata)” in the “Topic elements” table is confusing. Also, the inconsistent values of “n/a”, “n/a (metadata), and “n/a (empty)”  throughout are confusing.

 

I’ve done one pass through reworking the content and information design, and will attach a PDF.

 

More substantive comments – From Eliot, in regard to <image> and <hazardsymbol> (specialized from image):

 

“How is @othertype translatable? It would normally be used as a keyword to the rendering to then generate the appropriate label, which would be localized in the rendition processing. Expecting authors to provide the presentation label in @othertype would be very bad practice.”

 

Best,

Kris

 

Kristen James Eberlein
Chair, OASIS DITA Technical Committee
Owner, Eberlein Consulting LLC
kris@eberleinconsulting.com

Skype: kriseberlein; voice: +1 (919) 622-1501