RE: [dita] RE: [Dita-ot-developer] Handling of xref attributes

________________________________

        
From: Michael Priestley [mailto:]
        
Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2006 5:00 
PM
        To: Paul 
Prescod
        Cc: 
; ; Robert D 
Anderson; Su-Laine Yeo
        Subject: 
RE: [dita] RE: [Dita-ot-developer] Handling of xref 
attributes
       
       
       
        
scope="local": grab linktext (and shortdesc if available) from the target unless 
defined in the link/topicref/xref
        
        - format is assumed to be dita, href 
will change .dita to .html on output; if format not dita, linktext must be 
defined in the 
link/topicref/xref
        

Okay, can we update the DITA spec to be less media specific. (my 
rewrites are not meant to be taken verbatim but to suggest what I think are the 
key concepts)

From: "Set scope to local when the resource is part of the 
current set of content, and should be accessed and copied to the output 
directory."

To: "Set scope to local when the resource is part of the 
current set of content, and the link address should be rewritten to use some 
form of content-set-internal addressing like a relative path or ID. If the link 
is empty and the referent is of format DITA then the link text will be derived 
from the content of the referent."

Even for HTML the previous text was not quite correct 
because you don't "copy" DITA resources into the output directory. You 
process them into the output directory. For PDF or "real print" there isn't 
necessarily anything you would call an output directory at 
all.

         
scope="peer": linktext must be defined in the link/topicref/xref (shortdesc 
optional)
        
        - format is assumed to be dita, href 
will change .dita to .html on output 

From:  "Set scope to peer when the resource is part of the 
current set of content but is not accessible at build time. "

To: "Set 
scope to peer when the resource is part of the current set of content but is not 
processed into output in the same output process. DITA processing software will 
rewrite the link address using some algorithm that predicts the eventual 
location of the referent, or fix the link later."

I hope this makes it clearer what the software is 
intended to do. For simple, single-directory XHTML, it would use the algorithm 
you describe. For PDF it might use a different algorithm. In a complex 
enterprise publishing system it might ask a relational database what the current 
external web location is of the topic being 
referenced.

 scope="external": linktext defaults to the URL 
unless defined in the link/topicref/xref (shortdesc also 
optional)
        - format is assumed to 
be NOT dita; href will be passed through as-is 

 From: "Set scope to external when the resource is not part of the current 
information set and should open in a new browser window."

To: "Set scope to external when the resource is 
not part of the current information set. DITA publishing software should not 
rewrite the address. In an online context the link should typically open in a 
new browser window."

My rewrite is intended to be explicitly 
media-independent. It is also intended to demote the presentation instruction 
from a requirement to a suggestion.

 Paul Prescod