Re: Task Markup (delinquent action item)

[Norman Walsh <ndw@nwalsh.com>]

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/ Jeff Biss <jeff@marco-inc.com> was heard to say:
| There seems to be a problem with us users fully understanding what the
| developers intended when they implemented the elements already in the
| DocBook DTD. Maybe it would be a good thing if, when presented with a
| requesrt for a new element such as "task", a developer would present
| the requestor with and example using existing elements. Maybe
| "Examples" could be a living growing thing on the DocBook server that
| could be referenced whenever a person can't figure out how to
| appropriately use existing elements for their particular task.

The TC does its best to make sure that requests are examined in the
light of what can already be done. Often the response to a request is
exactly what you suggest: a description of how it can already be done
and a request for the submitter to explain why the suggestion is
insufficient for their needs.

Often the submitter is content with our suggestions and the request is
withdrawn. In the particular case of task/topic markup, the discussion
has been ongoing for months and the submitter is unsatisfied by the
alternatives.

| No offense to the writers of the DocBook reference guide, but there
| are always a huge variety of ways to use tags that cannot be addressed
| in a book that has already gone to press.

The book is a living document, http://docbook.org/tdg/en/html/, but I
admit it hasn't been updated often enough in recent months.

                                        Be seeing you,
                                          norm

- -- 
Norman Walsh <ndw@nwalsh.com>      | certain: adj., insufficiently
http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/ | analyzed
Chair, DocBook Technical Committee |
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