Re: [docbook-apps] DocBook XSL 1.67.0 released

[Elliotte Rusty Harold <elharo@metalab.unc.edu>]

At 4:12 AM +0900 11/12/04, Michael Smith wrote:

>The problem is that its default rendering makes it inappropriate
>for marking up programming variables or program arguments -- which
>most people do not want rendered in italic.

I'd question that statement. I *do* want method arguments rendered in 
italic, at least a significant fraction of the time. This is the 
convention I've used in several books, including XML in a Nutshell, 
and I've seen it used in other O'Reilly books as well.

I agree not everyone wants this, nor does everyone want it all of the 
time. I've also written books where I did not italicize method 
arguments. However no one single convention will satisfy everyone. 
This is what CSS is for. Different documents can choose different 
renderings for var, as they like.

However, I am specifically not bothered by the default rendering of 
var as italic. This is a common idiom, and a reasonable one.

-- 

   Elliotte Rusty Harold
   elharo@metalab.unc.edu
   Effective XML (Addison-Wesley, 2003)
   http://www.cafeconleche.org/books/effectivexml
   http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0321150406/ref=nosim/cafeaulaitA