Attribute and Element definitions - editorial

[Patrick Durusau <patrick@durusau.net>]

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Greetings!

Strictly an editorial issue but I noticed that the text repeats
definitions, for attributes in particular.

One example would be "tags," which reads in part:

*****
Tags: This OPTIONAL element allows the definition of any number of
tags which can be used by the author to describe the Service Template.
Each tag is defined by a separate, nested Tag element.....
*****

Which can be found starting at lines:

755

1417

1672

1917

2100

2299

2409

2524

2764

Thinking that if all the repeated attribute and element definitions
were consolidated, the reader would know all the information for that
attribute or element on a single reading. They would not need to worry
about finding it elsewhere, differently.

In cases where an element or attribute does have to vary, that
difference is highlighted by the fact it appears with the additional
information, which makes its difference more noticeable.

It is perfectly possible to repeat definitions without variation but
when we consolidated all the element/attribute definitions in ODF 1.1
to ODF 1.2, we discovered there were substantive differences in
wording spread over > 700 pages for some attributes. Not a pleasant
discovery.

Not to mention that it makes revision and maintenance nearly
impossible when subtle changes can have impacts in unnoticed parts of
a standard.

I haven't tried to enumerate all the duplicate definitions. I have
forwarded concordances of the text to Paul Lipton that may assist in
that task.

Hope everyone is having a great day!

Patrick
- -- 
Patrick Durusau
patrick@durusau.net
Technical Advisory Board, OASIS (TAB)
Former Chair, V1 - US TAG to JTC 1/SC 34
Convener, JTC 1/SC 34/WG 3 (Topic Maps)
Editor, OpenDocument Format TC (OASIS), Project Editor ISO/IEC 26300
Co-Editor, ISO/IEC 13250-1, 13250-5 (Topic Maps)

Another Word For It (blog): http://tm.durusau.net
Homepage: http://www.durusau.net
Twitter: patrickDurusau
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