[Date Prev] | [Thread Prev] | [Thread Next] | [Date Next] -- [Date Index] | [Thread Index] | [List Home]
Subject: "Fantasy" markup
Although Docbook looks like it's more geared toward writing technical manuals - ala the infamous O'Reilly books, where structured formatting of many different kinds of elements takes place - here's a function, here's the definition, the syntax, a few remarks, a gotcha here, an example there, and a clause saying don't blame us if your machine explodes while trying to open a subspace commlink to Vger... I've noticed that Docbook could work very well for novellas and novels in general. While yes, I could probably use the existing schema and formatting tags to represent different items in the text, however this strikes me as going against the "intent" of Docbook. My current pages are written in HTML, however there are shortcomings with HTML that well, I have grown out of, and I want to step away from that. Looking at Docbook, I see it as a very cool way of doing things. I know it'll take a slight readjustment of my thinking (okay, major!) but I think it'll be worth it - the most significant example being seeing why I placed markup where I did. Why is this text italicized? Why is this text boldface? Stuff like that. However, in answering those questions, I noticed there's a significant drawback to this idea - there's no "fantasy" or "novel" markup for Docbook. To better illustrate what I mean, I'll put a couple excerpts in: <excerpt id="1"> <para>Following the grunting noises down the corridor, the party cautiously crept along, controlling their own sounds. The fighters in the front had the most trouble, however, wearing their heavy metal armors. Of course, any trouble, and they're usually the first to meet it, so they needed the extra protection. Didn't work very well for stealth, however. Normally, Imoen would be up front, warning the party well in advance of any danger where surprise could still work. Not in this case - the monsters were already somewhat aware of their presence, so the lithe human was in her rank, behind the heavily armored fighters with the big swords and plate armor.</para> <para>Behind Minsc and Khalid stood the aforementioned rogue Imoen, and Jaheira, a druidess - the party's healer. Though not as effective as a cleric in casting <spell>Cure</spell> spells, she was very effective in close combat. Behind the ladies stood two wizards - Alderan of Candlekeep, and Xan of Beregost. Both highly effective at providing additional firepower to the party - usually in the literal sense.</para> <para>Seeing the hobgoblins ahead, Minsc rushed forward, screaming bloody murder at the monsters, "Butt-kicking for goodness!" Khalid grunted at the rush and followed closely behind Minsc. Jaheira and Imoen followed, keeping themselves at a distance, standing ready with whatever skills they might need to use as the situation developed. Alderan and Xan followed, their minds already racing for whatever spells they might need.</para> <para>The fighters burst into the room. They were quickly overwhelmed, though they stood their ground against the multitude of monsters before them. Jaheira covered the left flank next to her husband with her quarterstaff while Imoen stood the right flank next to Minsc using her shortsword. The odds were against them, and Alderan decided this was a good time for an equalizer.</para> <para>He spied a short set of stairs immediately to Imoen's right, and charged up them. A hobgoblin's spear fell just short of the wizard's robe with his swift movement. A horde of his other friends stood below, and they started digging out ranged weapons - javelins, crossbows, and the like.</para> <para>Not wanting to be turned into a pincoushin, Alderan chanted the arcane syllables of the first spell that came to mind. Flicking a pinch of sulphur into the air, he leveled a hand to the masses below. A red flaming orb flashed into being in his right hand. At the evoker's will, the orb streaked into the middle of the monsters.</para> <para>The <spell>Fireball</spell> erupted in the middle of the monsters, incinerating the lot of them. Alderan carefully placed the spell so that his fellow party members didn't get hurt, however he didn't quite get all the monsters. Khalid and Minsc charged the remainders, while Imoen peeked around one of the other passageways leading out of the room.</para> <para>"Aldie! There's a lot more coming!" yelled the rogue, seeing another charging horde coming down the narrow corridor. She took action herself, and pulled out a small wand from beneath her belt. <thought>Aldie's not the only one with heavy firepower...</thought></para> <para>Pointing her <magicitem>Wand of Fireballs</magicitem> at the reinforcements, she spoke the arcane syllable etched in the side of the <magicitem>Wand</magicitem>. A fresh <spell>Fireball</spell> erupted down the corridor, roasting the reinforcements. The spell touched off a little too close, and Imoen was caught in the blast as well.</para> <para>"What have you done, child?" admonished Jaheira at the sound of the screaming Imoen. Her leather armor was blackened from the spell, and it looked like it was burned right through to the skin beneath. Minsc and Khalid finished with the last of the hobgoblins as Alderan hopped from the ledge and raced to Imoen's side with Jaheira close by.</para> </excerpt> -- (Yes, that's a first draft.) The above fight shows 3 tags - <spell>, <magicitem>, and <thought>. Normally in HTML, I would mark them up with <em> or <i> tags. I suppose I could cop out and use <emphasis>, however IMHO like I said, that goes against the spirit of Docbook. Besides, it allows for experimentation with the layout - you could choose to have magic items rendered in the text with a different font, for example. Yes yes - that's what <span> and CSS classes are all about. Well, that would be a fine rendering method for HTML, but what about PDF? Speaking of paged/printed media - well, here's another piece. <excerpt id="2"> <para>Handing the papers to the guard, Tarric walked down into the dungeon to meet his charge. His heart leaped at seeing Aribeth in the cell. "U'aestar hina ele nehel, irmisseamin."<footnote><para>My heart, mind, and breath sing to see thee, my love.</para></footnote></para> <para>"Diolalle, irmimamin."<footnote><para>Thank you, my love.</para></ footnote></para> </excerpt> -- We all know HTML doesn't handle footnotes properly, and this is my biggest pet peeve of HTML. I could fake it quite well, using other markup, but I'm sorry - it doesn't work right when printed. Footnotes belong on the bottom of the printed page, not the end of the document when printed! GRR!!! However, it gets interesting when I ask, "Why is this footnoted?" Well, consider: <excerpt id="3"> <para>Handing the papers to the guard, Tarric walked down into the dungeon to meet his charge. His heart leaped at seeing Aribeth in the cell. <language> <text>"U'aestar hina ele nehel, irmisseamin."</text> <translation>My heart, mind, and breath sing to see thee, my love. </translation> </language>"</ para> <para>"<language><text>Diolalle, irmimamin.</text> <translation>Thank you, my love.</translation>"</para> </excerpt> This way, whatever ending output format is done, it's handled appropriately - for example, in HTML, you could have the text as a <span> with a mouseover event showing the translation, in a PDF, it could be footnoted. Well, I'm done rattling off. Comments, please - have I been affected by a <spell>Feeblemind</spell>? :P -- Anyone sending unwanted advertising e-mail to this address will be charged a $25 fee for network traffic and computing time. By extracting my address from this message, its header, or any web site showing my email address either in literal or aggregate form, you agree to these terms.
[Date Prev] | [Thread Prev] | [Thread Next] | [Date Next] -- [Date Index] | [Thread Index] | [List Home]