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Subject: Re: [docbook] How to display a directory tree
Thank you very much for this quite detailed reply. I agree that variablelist is strangely named. For instance I usually use it in <refentry> sections to explain the use of the options supported by a command line utility. Thanks again, BG On Wed, 20 Apr 2005 11:45:58 -0700, John L. Clark <jlc6@po.cwru.edu> wrote: > On Wed, Apr 20, 2005 at 02:06:33PM -0400, Stefan Seefeld wrote: >> > I wonder if there is a set of tags to represent a directory tree, with >> > the files included. The main purpose is for system administrators who >> > want to explain where some file are, and to give an explanation for >> > each file. > >> I have used 'tree' in combination with <screen> to do that. > > What is this 'tree' you speak of? > > As for myself, I've used nested variablelists to achieve this sort of > semantics. I treat each varlistentry as a directory entry, the (first) > term in a varlistentry as the name of the entry, and the listitem as a > description and an optional further directory expansion (using the same > variablelist structure). For example: > > <variablelist> > <varlistentry> > <term>usr</term> > > <listitem> > <para>Common directory for shared user resources on UNIX > systems.</para> > > <variablelist> > <varlistentry> > <term>bin</term> > > <listitem> > <!-- etc... --> > </listitem> > </varlistentry> > </variablelist> > </listitem> > </varlistentry> > </variablelist> > > I haven't messed with the formatting, but I can imagine how one could > format this in a number of ways to look like a directory list. Upon > reflection, it seems reasonable to me to specify the role attribute for > such variablelists (role="directoryList") or somesuch. > > Alternatively, this may be a lot cleaner with a standard itemizedlist or > simplelist when used with the new term definition structure in > DocBook-NG[0] [1]. > > Tangentially, this brings up a slight nit that I have with DocBook. I > think that the variablelist element is misnamed. I think the idea of > the "definition list" that is present in HTML is a closer fit to the > common uses of this type of list. In a hypothetical definition list, > one could still "define" variables (and so we can still represent > variable lists), but we can also "define" anything that requires > defining (such as the structure of a directory in this case). But of > course, such a change would be Significantly Backwards Incompatible(tm). > > Take care, > > John L. Clark > > [0] http://norman.walsh.name/2005/04/08/jagermeister#p13 > > [1] http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/docbook/200502/msg00042.html
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