Re: [office] Groups - ODF_Element_Naming_01(ODF_Element_Naming_01.pdf) uploaded

[Bob Jolliffe <bobj@dst.gov.za>]

Greetings.  We are still on an extended public holiday in SA which is why I've been so quiet ...

Just a thought, but I think Martin Bryan's DSRL (Document Schema Renaming Language) which is part 8 of that long awaited project of SC34 WG1, ISO/IEC 19757 - DSDL, can make mapping between naming conventions (the old and the new, or perhaps the concise and the verbose) pretty straightforward to deal with and describe.

But, generally I would go along with Rob's exceptions below.  Is there a synthesis to be had between the proposed guidelines?  In addition I think some joined up "words" like readonly and datasource have, for better or for worse, made their way into common currency.  dropdown for me is marginal.  nohref I agree must be hyphenated.

I'm puzzled over:
"style:auto-text-indent" and "style:automatic-text-indentation".
I really prefer the former.  What is the problem with "indent"?  Is it that we don't want a verb here?  Do we then hit a similar problem with "style:vertical-align" and friends?

Regards
Bob

----- Original Message -----
From: "robert weir" <robert_weir@us.ibm.com>
To: office@lists.oasis-open.org
Sent: Thursday, May 1, 2008 11:22:26 PM (GMT+0200) Africa/Harare
Subject: Re: [office] Groups - ODF_Element_Naming_01 (ODF_Element_Naming_01.pdf) uploaded

Patrick, are you making a distinction between inconsistencies in new 
elements being added to ODF versus inconsistencies in ODF 1.0/ODF 1.1 
names?

If it is possible to break these out, that would be great.

Things that we're adding to ODF 1.2 we should be able to freely rename, 
retype, whatever.  But for existing names we'll need to go through a 
deprecation cycle.

Also, I don't mind some abbreviations where they are in every day use.  So 
min/max/auto/multi are blessed by age.  The best advice I ever heard on 
abbreviations was that they were dangerous when different people could 
abbreviate the same word differently, and this will lead to error.  So 
what is the abbreviation for "table"?  Is it "tbl" or is it "tab" or is it 
"tb"?  There is no accepted abbreviation.  So it should always be written 
out.  But what is the abbreviation for "automatic"?  I think you get 100% 
of people to agree that the answer is "auto".  So maybe that is a safe 
abbreviation to use.

Other good guidelines are:  It should be easily pronounceable  and 
understood when spoken.   Odd requirement for an XML standard, but if this 
is not true, then it is hard to review the standard with everyone over the 
telephone!

It is a balancing act.  My principle is based on the belief that computing 
power will continue to grow and become cheaper, while programmers will 
probably not get much smarter than they are.  In other words, technology 
improves faster than evolution.  So making life more difficult for 
programmers in order to save a byte of storage is usually a poor 
trade-off, at least when measured over technology time spans of a decade 
or more.  On the other hand, names that are too long make will programmers 
lives more difficult as well, so common sense needs to prevail in the end.

-Rob

___________________________

Rob Weir
Software Architect
Workplace, Portal and Collaboration Software
IBM Software Group

email: robert_weir@us.ibm.com
phone: 1-978-399-7122
blog: http://www.robweir.com/blog/

patrick@durusau.net wrote on 05/01/2008 04:47:37 PM:

> Greetings!
> 
> I have finished inserting the markers for adding automatically generated
> text to the current draft so I celebrated by reviewing ODF for 
consistency
> on element and attribute names. ;-) 
> 
> Ok, ok, each to his own! 
> 
> Anyway, this document details 9 elements whose names need hyphens and 31
> that may need expansion of abbreviations. 
> 
> I will be posting the listing for abbreviations in just a minute. 
> 
> Hope everyone is having a great day!
> 
> Patrick
> 
>  -- Patrick Durusau*
> 
> The document named ODF_Element_Naming_01 (ODF_Element_Naming_01.pdf) has
> been submitted by Patrick Durusau* to the OASIS Open Document Format for
> Office Applications (OpenDocument) TC document repository.
> 
> Document Description:
> Use of hyphens and abbreviations in ODF element names.
> 
> View Document Details:
> http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/office/document.php?
> document_id=28168
> 
> Download Document: 
> http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/office/download.php/
> 28168/ODF_Element_Naming_01.pdf
> 
> 
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