Re: [docbook-apps] Use of xincludes vs. entities

[Sam Fischmann <sam.fischmann@gmail.com>]

I agree with Ron's simple summary: use XInclude for large chunks of
text and entities for small. The basic problem is that there's no
elegant way to change bits of the XIncluded text based on the context
of its inclusion:

* XML files + multiple catalog sets are awkward and not supported well
in editors; you basically have to configure the editor each time you
open a book.

* Profiling + entities is sometimes inappropriate and forces you to
group variables by name instead of the context in which they are used,
which causes maintenance problems.

Jirka, your proposal is valuable because it would allow me to define
small text variables for each of several contexts and store them in
separate definition files. I could then use profiling to conditionally
include definition files at the top level of a book and not have to
look at miles of logical cruft every time something is wrong with a
text variable in my documentation. It does not require multiple
catalog sets, would be easy for editors to support, and unlike pure
entity-based inclusion, there's an elegant system for overrides. The
only unknown here for me is how validation would work. I can see
myself putting definitionfile tags at the top of every single file via
a global entity so that XIncluded files validate correctly, but that's
inelegant again.

Hope these thoughts are informative or helpful...

-Sam

On Sun, Sep 26, 2010 at 12:37 PM, Jirka Kosek <jirka@kosek.cz> wrote:
> Sam Fischmann wrote:
>> Sorry for mailing so much on this topic, but thanks for the link. The
>> information here is great to see, but I'm curious about the current
>> status of any work related to this proposal.
>
> It is work in progress which can be thrown away in any point or changed
> dramatically. However user feedback is more then welcome in driving
> further development of transclusion proposal and in deciding whether and
> how add DocBook specific transclusion support.
>
> --
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
>  Jirka Kosek      e-mail: jirka@kosek.cz      http://xmlguru.cz
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
>       Professional XML consulting and training services
>  DocBook customization, custom XSLT/XSL-FO document processing
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
>  OASIS DocBook TC member, W3C Invited Expert, ISO JTC1/SC34 member
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>