Re: [docbook] Dividers and fleurons

["Michael(tm) Smith" <smith@sideshowbarker.net>]

Peter Ring <PRI@magnus.dk>, 2007-01-30 10:56 +0100:

> What you describe is called a <separator> in XHTML2 [1][2]. One
> can argue about the merrits of "loose" empty presentational
> elements [3].
[...]
> I'd use <bridgehead renderas="other" otherrenderas="separator"/>
> (DocBook 5) or <bridgehead role="separator"/>.

I guess I don't see why Jukka couldn't just mark those instance up
using nested sections (as Chris suggested) -

  <section>
    <title>* * * </title>

...or whatever fleuron character is used.

He could tune stylesheet parameters to prevent those from
appearing in the ToC.

He did after all say that the primary purpose was to handle the
case where an "author organize his paragraphs into logical
sections" but just without subheadings. It seems to me in that
case the fleurons are simply taking the place of a text title.

The case he mentions of using fleurons to mark the end of chapters
seems like a different case and doesn't need to be handled with
markup in the source at all (can be done just through stylesheet
customization).

   --Mike

> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Jukka Aho [mailto:jukka.aho@iki.fi]
> > Sent: 30. januar 2007 02:14
> > To: docbook@lists.oasis-open.org
> > Subject: [docbook] Dividers and fleurons
> > 
> > 
> > In certain types of print publications (say, opinion pieces 
> > written by a 
> > columnist for a weekly magazine or a newspaper) it is fairly typical 
> > that the author may organize his paragraphs into logical sections 
> > _without_ using subheadings.
> > 
> > Instead, we may see a (more or less) graphical divider - 
> > often something 
> > simple, like these three asterisks, centered on a single line:
> > 
> > * * *
> > 
> > (Large round dots - such as U+25CF - or squares are also often seen 
> > instead of asterisks.)
> > 
> > A similar practice can be encountered in books - especially 
> > old ones - 
> > where flower or leaf motifs (properly called "fleurons") may 
> > be used at 
> > the end of chapters, or for divisions within a chapter. Here are some 
> > fonts which contain such motifs...
> > 
> >  <http://www.myfonts.com/browse/keyword/fleuron/>
> > 
> > ...and here's an article which discusses the topic:
> > 
> >  <http://www.wijnne.com/w/typography.html>
> > 
> > * * *
> > 
> > Now, my question becomes: what is the semantically correct way of 
> > marking up these kind of logical divisions within a DocBook (XML) 
> > document?
> > 
> > In HTML documents, the closest logical markup equivalent 
> > would appear to 
> > be <hr> - the horizontal rule - but I could not find anything 
> > quite like 
> > that in DocBook. The only thing I could come up with was the 
> > <bridgehead> element, but I'm a bit undecided about it - is it 
> > appropriate to use it that way, or is there a better alternative?
> > 

-- 
Michael(tm) Smith
http://people.w3.org/mike/

smime.p7s