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Subject: RE: [dita] Keywords in DITA
From: "JoAnn Hackos" <>
To: "Esrig, Bruce \(Bruce\)" <>,"Don Day" <>,"Paul Prescod" <>
Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2005 08:45:08 -0700
I wonder if Bruce could provide an example of the
distinction between keyword as description and keyword as content. I'm not
certain I understand how they are being distinguished from this
explanation.
JoAnn
JoAnn T. Hackos, PhD
President
Comtech Services,
Inc.
710 Kipling Street, Suite 400
Denver, CO 80215
303-232-7586
http://www.comtech-serv.com
From: Esrig, Bruce (Bruce)
[mailto:]
Sent: Wednesday, March 09, 2005 1:13
AM
To: 'Don Day'; Paul Prescod
Cc:
Subject: RE: [dita] Keywords in
DITA
A
future release of the architecture should provide language to
distinguish between two specializations of the archetype: a description
(keyword-as-description) and an object (keyword-of-content). This would provide
a clear distinction that would cue authors and processing about the difference
in purpose.
Not
all field names or function names make good search terms, so including all such
identifiers among the candidate targets for search impairs the
specificity that users want when they search. This means there is a benefit to
being able to mark up identifiers for special presentation in output
(keyword-of-content) without including them among search
terms.
Indexterm is really a special case of
keyword-as-description. Keyword-as-description could be permitted in content to
permit authors to identify text that is to be used as a search target. It is
often convenient to mark up identifying text on first
occurrence.
The clash comes when an author wants both usages
simultaneously: keyword-as-description to indicate a search target and
keyword-of-content because the identifier is a special identifier in the
content. The keyword-of-content usage must take precedence. In order to
accomodate the keyword-as-description usage, the author could choose to write
some descriptive text to hold the keyword-as-description usage, or else place a
keyword-as-description entry in a metadata context. Although it is tempting to
use the unspecialized markup in these cases, there is still the question of
whether to trigger an index entry, so a third specialization of the archetype
(keyword-desc-and-content) may be
needed.
Best wishes,
Bruce
Esrig
