Re: [docbook-apps] oXygen 9 beta with WYSIWYG-like editing supportfor DocBook

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

Scott Hudson wrote:

> I think we're splitting hairs over 1 element in DocBook, 3 in DITA, and 
> however many equivalents in infinite DTD/RNG/XSD schemas. There is, 
> obviously, limited space in the UI. Why are you so opposed to having 
> maps to 3 very familiar, commonly used buttons? And again, this is in 
> author mode, not the tagged view (though it'd be nice if those buttons 
> worked in that mode too!
> 

The 3 very familiar, commonly used buttons you refer to are for 3 very 
familiar, commonly used aspects of presentational markup. They have no 
place in DocBook. Adding those three buttons to a semantic editor is 
like adding a steering wheel, accelerator pedal, and brake to a Boeing 
767. Flying an airplane is not like driving a car, even if they're both 
  vehicles that go from point A to point B. They need different 
interfaces. We can't teach someone to fly with a watered down user 
interface that pretends an airplane is something it's not.  If we want 
semantic markup, we have to have semantic buttons.

I do expect that real semantic markup may not fit in a toolbar. Menus or 
palettes may be a better option than buttons. I do like the compromise 
that was suggested where the i button drops down to a menu, and the user 
has to choose the *reason* they're italicizing some text. That will 
actually help teach users and wean them off presentational markup in a 
way a simple one-click i-button won't.

-- 
Elliotte Rusty Harold  elharo@metalab.unc.edu
Java I/O 2nd Edition Just Published!
http://www.cafeaulait.org/books/javaio2/
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0596527500/ref=nosim/cafeaulaitA/