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Subject: Re: [docbook] Ruminations on the future of DocBook
Steven, From my experience people have a problem with properly applying tags from stylesheets even when directed to use a style guide that dictates what to use and where to use it. I am NOT proposing that the note/tip/etc elements be replaced. I am merely using them as an example where I see that element quatity reduction could have been applied as I see it was done in the <itemizedlist> element. A user only has to learn the <itemizedlist> to create bulletized lists, not a larger quantity of specifically named elements for each type of bullet a user may desire. The writer can leave the default or change the attribute or stylesheet to get the desired result. This doesn't seem to be a processing problem because the DTD structure would still show where a certain element can be used and what attributes are allowed. The allowed attribute values, such as those for "type" for <bibliorelation>, are delimited in the DTD and appear easier to add to/delete from than adding another element. As I see it, the point is not to simplify processing but to simplify the use of elements by writers. This can be done in a number of ways going forward. I think, perhaps incorrectly, that the structure is affected less by attributes than by elements. NOTE: I am learning XML, mostly by trial and error while using the DocBook and referencing the DTD documentation. I could very well be wrong! Jeff Biss Steven Cogorno wrote: >Jeff Biss said: > >>Michael, >> >>I understand what you're saying but I am talking about the hierarchy of >>the docBook. There could be just one element that would have a default >>attribute unless it is provided with an override. The complexity would >>be shifted from the elements to the attributes. This may not be an >>answer for every element but at the moment there is such a reduction. >> > >And what advantage does this give? > >Chaging warning and note to a single element with an attribute does nothing >to simply the processing. What it does do is prevent orgaizations from >customizing the DTD to restrict where one or the other might appear. > >Just as Norm was not speaking for his employer, I am not officially >representing Sun Microsystems in this message. > >I think it's important to recognize the extensive investments many companies >have made to implement DocBook and DocBook-based DTDs. I estimate that my >department (not Sun as a whole) has spent ten million dollars developing and >supporting our documentation tools in the eight years we've been using >DocBook. We produce over 100,000 pages of content a year. We have gigabytes >of structured documentation. > >I suspect management would be extremely reluctant to adopt such fundamental >changes that would significantly de-leverage the existing investmest. > >Steve Cogorno >Sun Microsystems > > >
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