Re: [docbook-tc] Version reference for DocBook Publishers documents?

[Nic Gibson <nicg@corbas.net>]

On 8 Feb 2011, at 16:18, Jirka Kosek wrote:

> Dave Pawson wrote:
> 
>> Which is fine for a user that understands that difference.
>> How many do?
>> 
>> IMHO it would be more 'friendly' for processing to make
>> it very clear.
>> 
>> We now have
>> docbook
>> Oasis docbook variants
>> Unofficial docbook variants (webside, slides)
>> and non docbook (my own, I changed one element)
>> 
>> I'd like these to be clearly identified, somehow, to the user.
> 
> You can:
> 
> 1) manually assign schema
> 2) change name of root element
> 3) change namespace of elements
> 4) use version attribute
> 
> Options 2) and 3) breaks existing toolchains, so they are no go.
> 
> Option 1) doesn't universally work, because people might use different
> schemas (RELAX NG vs. XSD) caused by limitations in tools used.
> 
> Option 4) seems as an optimal solution -- it doesn't break anything but
> can be used to locate appropriate schema.

This is my gut feeling too - it's the least worrying approach.

I think that Dave's "Oasis docbook variants" category is likely to need some clarification. The chances are, that over time there will be more of them. I'd like to see some way of identifying them (perhaps an 'official variant' component of the version string).

When I asked the question in the first place I didn't realise it would lead to so much discussion!

nic

--
Nic Gibson
Corbas Consulting
Digital Publishing Consultancy and Training
http://www.corbas.co.uk, +44 (0)7718 906817