RE: [docbook] Add topic element to DocBook?

["Johnson, Eric" <Eric.Johnson@iona.com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Melanie Kendell [mailto:melanie.kendell@gmail.com] 
> Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2006 7:52 PM
> To: docbook@lists.oasis-open.org
> Subject: Re: [docbook] Add topic element to DocBook?
> 
> > Essentially <topic> and <section> are the same, but not 
> > interchangeable correct?
> 
> I like the idea of adding <topic> as I have sometimes had 
> trouble describing <section> to those writers for whom 
> "Section" is conceptually between book and chapter rather 
> than at a lower granular level.
> 
> But I don't like the idea that some authors may use section 
> and some will use topic to mean the same thing.

Way back in the tech hay days, our company went on a big information
mapping kick and now all of our documents have "blocks" as the base
level of structure. We are using <simplesect> as the blocking element
because blocks are atomic. Where does <topic> fit into this sort of
information chunking? Is a <topic> a block or is it a higher level of
structure?

> As for <tasktopic>, didn't someone say you would be able to 
> specifiy a topic type? So why not <topic topictype=task>?

That seems like a much cleaner approach than the other suggestions.

> 
> -Melanie
> 
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