questions about the future of docbook (ng)...

[Stefan Seefeld <seefeld@sympatico.ca>]

hi there,

I was tempted to write another 'talkback' to Norm's
blog (http://norman.walsh.name/2004/01/01/absinthe)
but I believe this ML is a better medium for a followup...

What I'm trying to understand is how docbook ng will
deal with the proliferation of domain-specific vocabularies.

One obvious option is modularization, though it isn't (to
me at least) clear how exactly that would be designed.

What I thought of as modularization isn't merely a way
to *use* subsets of the docbook vocabulary, but to really
redefine it so there is a 'core' vocabulary and a set of
'profiles'.

IMO the question should be asked 'what is docbook' ?
Is 'classsynopsis' part of it ? Or is it part of a profile ?
Can people add domain-specific vocabularies (profiles)
without the need for a central authority ? Etc.

I'm tempted to use docbook in a couple of domains I'm
writing documentation in (notably software architecture /
development process, modeling, API documentation, etc.),
and I feel some higher level vocabulary missing.

On the other hand I totally agree with Norm's assessment
that docbook isn't a modeling language. But the, wouldn't
there be a way to *add* a modeling language on top of
docbook ? Or somehow map one to the other ?
I'm for example playing with UML modeling tools that let
me generate 'html reports' from my models. These are
generated via xslt scripts, so it is tempting to try to
write new scripts that generate some docbook vocabulary...

What do you think ?

Kind regards,
		Stefan