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Subject: DOCBOOK: Re: On the size of DocBook...


/ Dave Pawson <dpawson@nildram.co.uk> was heard to say:
| What impact might that have on the stylesheets Norm?
| Divergent sets of stylesheets for pizza slices?

No, no, no. You slice up the pie, you get a strict subset of the whole
pie. The stylesheet for the whole pie can always be applied to the
subset.

| Picking up Pauls point, user demand is for 'less necessity' for
| customisation, i.e. easier out of the box usage.

It can't be quite that simple. DocBook works out of the box, no
subsets required.

Paul's other point, that this is a tools issue not a schema issue is
compelling.

Why is Simplified DocBook easier to use than "full" DocBook?

1. Because when you open the DTD in emacs and read the content models,
   it's smaller.

2. Because the user documentation for Simplified lists fewer elements.

3. Because when you pull down the "what can I insert here list", it's
   shorter.

4. Because it's named "Simplified", it's less intimidating.

5. ...?

Options 3 and 4 seem most likely to me.

Option 1 really requires making the schema smaller, but I can't
imagine the set of people comfortable reading DocBook "in the raw" who
are also disturbed by its size is very large.

Option 2 could be created without changing the underlying schema.

Option 3 could be solved with either a more sophisticated editing tool
or by making the schema smaller. It may be that in the world of free
tools, the latter is more practical than the former, but maybe that's
not sufficient motivation to do the latter. Heck, maybe it means we'd
all be better served by improving the docbook-ide mode for emacs than
hacking subsets of the DTD.

Option 4 is marketing. I don't understand marketing but it seems to
work. At least that's what all the marketing folks keep assuring me. :-)

| The stylesheets? I'd leave that to Norm. I have a nasty feeling
| they *could* ride such a divide?

In theory, the templates for elements not in your subset could be
removed from the stylesheet. But that isn't as straightforward as it
seems. And it's not clear that the "simplified" stylesheet is any
simpler in practical terms. So, no, I don't think that's feasible.

                                        Be seeing you,
                                          norm

-- 
Norman Walsh <ndw@nwalsh.com>      | If a little knowledge is
http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/ | dangerous, where is the man who
Chair, DocBook Technical Committee | has so much as to be out of
                                   | danger?--T. H. Huxley


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