Re: [docbook-tc] proposal: add relatedlink element to topic

[Norman Walsh <ndw@nwalsh.com>]

"Rowland, Larry" <larry.rowland@hp.com> writes:
>>I'm not entirely comfortable with a model that says these elements
>>might or might not resolve and that that might or might not be a
>>problem.
>
> This is an unfortunate problem of any reference in content that is
> intended for assembly into arbitrary collections.  Unless the person
> defining the assembly knows all the references made among the bits
> and pieces being assembled, there will most likely be references
> that do not resolve unless references that cross topic boundaries
> are forbidden.  That would, of course, make content much less useful
> to the consumer of the content.

Indeed. Perhaps I just have to learn to live with my discomfort.

>>How are relatedlinks in a document related to (no pun intended) the
>>relatedlinks section in an assembly file?
>
> My understanding is that the relatedlinks in a topic would
> be merged with the relatedlinks specified in an assembly and
> duplicates would be coalesced.

Ok. So the relationships look like this:

    <relationship type="collection">
      <!-- This is a collection that might be presented as list of links or
           references to pages.  Applies across any documents that include the
           modules. -->
      <association>Advanced User Topics</association>
      <instance linkend="xidi.parameters.syntax"/>
      <instance linkend="svn.properties"/>
    </relationship>

What do the inline relatelink elements look like? Do they have
content, or are they empty? How is the link target indicated? How
would a processing system know which relationships from which
collections to combine with the inline links?

> Once the list is generated, they
> would be sorted and collated and presented at the end of the
> topic.  I felt it would be desirable to have the ability to 
> indicate where the related links belong, since a section with
> multiple topics in it would probably not be best with the 
> relatedlinks for each topic to follow the topic, but people more 
> familiar with DITA felt that a rule based model would be adequate.

What are the rules and where are they expressed?

                                        Be seeing you,
                                          norm

-- 
Norman Walsh <ndw@nwalsh.com>      | More men become good through
http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/ | practice than through
Chair, DocBook Technical Committee | nature.--Democritus of Abdera

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