Re: [docbook-apps] Mapping OMG / ISO specification files to DocBook

["Bob Stayton" <bobs@sagehill.net>]

Hi Stefan,
Short of schema customization, the @role attribute in DocBook is the preferred 
mechanism to refine the semantics of an existing element into another "element".  In a 
situation similar to yours, I used preface with role="frontmatter" as the container 
for the special information, likewise because it required sections.  I customized the 
stylesheet to skip <preface role="frontmatter"> when generating output, and I modified 
the titlepage templates to pull information from it where needed.  That makes such a 
preface more like an info container, which is not output by default but only handled 
as a special case.  I don't consider it an abuse of preface, as this information does 
come before the body of the document, and the role attribute makes it clear that it is 
not a normal preface.

You also said:

> Please note that the OMG formally supports DocBook as input format for
> specifications.

In what way do they support DocBook?

Bob Stayton
Sagehill Enterprises
bobs@sagehill.net


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Stefan Seefeld" <stefan@seefeld.name>
To: "DocBook Apps Mailing List" <docbook-apps@lists.oasis-open.org>
Sent: Monday, July 23, 2012 2:29 PM
Subject: [docbook-apps] Mapping OMG / ISO specification files to DocBook


> Hello,
>
> I'm trying to write DocBook documents (formal specifications) that
> conform to the format requirements by the Object Management Group (OMG)
> and the International Standards Organization (ISO).
>
> Please find attached a titlepage sequence that I'm trying to map to DocBook.
> There are a couple of mapping issues, which I have worked around with
> hacks, so I'd like to know whether there are better alternatives (short
> of adding my own customization of the DB5 RelaxNG grammar):
>
> 1) The recto titlepage contains content that doesn't fit into any of the
> elements meant to be used on a titlepage. I have abused "preface"
> elements for this, but that requires a couple of hacks, in particular
> because prefaces require titles, and the content here doesn't have any
> (as you can see).
>
> 2) The verso page sequence contains something semantically akin to a
> "legalnotice", though it's quite a bit more (and more structured) than a
> simple notice. So again, I couldn't use the existing "legalnotice"
> element, but used a preface with a "legalnotice" id. Here again, there
> is not a single title (instead, each of the subsections has a title), so
> I had to cheat somewhat.
>
> Are there any better ways I could have mapped this text to DocBook ?
>
> Please note that the OMG formally supports DocBook as input format for
> specifications. It appears I'm the first person to attempt to actually
> use it, and thus I'm running into a couple of issues like the above. I
> think it would be great to find a way to get this working, especially if
> that could avoid having to use a custom grammar.
>
> Thanks for any suggestions,
>
>        Stefan
>
>
> --
>
>      ...ich hab' noch einen Koffer in Berlin...


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