We don't need to provide a meaning for all possible combinations of all
attribute values. And I will argue that it is better/simpler/more
understandable if we don't.
So, for something like @scope we could say that when
@format="ditamap" that the only meaningful value for @scope is
"local", that in this case other @scope values are either
1.
errors for which an implementation SHOULD report an
error or warning message and MAY, but is NOT REQUIRED to, recover by assuming a
value of "local" and continuing; or
2.
that results are implantation specific and as a
result values of @scope other than "local" SHOULD be used with
caution since they may not produce the same results when used with different
implementations.
-Jeff
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Eliot Kimber [mailto:]
> Sent: Tuesday, April 14, 2009 9:59 AM
> To: Robert D Anderson; Ogden, Jeff
> Cc: dita
> Subject: Re: [dita] Inheritance of attributes
through mapref
>
> On 4/14/09 8:43 AM, "Robert D Anderson"
<> wrote:
>
> > 2) What about the scope attribute? This is intended to
describe the
> scope
> > of the target of the topicref. In the case of a normal topic
reference,
> > scope="peer" means the target is not part of the
current set of
> > information, and may not be available, but is part of my
overall
> > information set (I think of this as a reference from one
Eclipse plug-in
> to
> > another). However, if I set @scope="peer" on a
reference to a map - does
> > that scope attribute describe the map (may not be available,
part of
> > another information set), or does the scope attribute cascade
to the map,
> > essentially resulting in a local map with full of peer
topics?
> >
> > In the off-list discussion, Jeff Ogden has been pushing for
the first
> > behavior (@scope=peer means the map is outside of the current
> information
> > set). I now have an action to go back to my users in IBM who
are
> depending
> > upon the second behavior, so we can see what impact this will
have
> and/or
> > see if they have other good reasons to keep this behavior.
>
> What would the processing implications be for a reference to a map
that is
> not scope="local"?
>
> At the moment, the only well-defined meaning for a topicref to a map
is
> inclusion of the map's elements in the set of effective elements
of the
> resulting compound map. There is no notion of a navigational
relationship
> that I know of in the current spec, which is the only thing I can
imagine
> scope="peer" or scope="external" to mean (if
it does not simply imply
> value
> propogation).
>
> The other possible behavior, that the @scope would propagate to
the
> referenced map seems reasonable in that from the standpoint of the
> referenced map as authored, the topics it points to may be local
but in
> the
> context of the referencing map they are peer or external, which
would have
> the effect of changing the nature of how the compound map is
rendered
> (depending on the details of how the processor using the map
treats scope
> differences). Establishing this behavior would not require
changing
> anything
> about what the spec says in this case, since we would not be
changing the
> meaning of scope != local for topicrefs, whatever it means.
>
> If we accept Jeff's preference, then I think we would be obligated
to say
> explicitly what it means to point to a non-local map, and I would
think it
> establishes the non-local map as a root map to which a navigation
> relationship is established (that is, treating the target map as
the root
> of
> a separate unit of publication, rather than a component of a
compound map).
> At the moment, the only spec-defined behavior for topicref
references to
> maps is virtual inclusion on the map element's children.
>
> [NOTE: I think the DITA spec actually needs a way to explicitly
create
> map-to-map navigation relationships of the peer and external
forms, but I
> don't think we can reasonably do it in 1.2, any more than we can
other
> linking semantics recently discussed.]
>
> Cheers,
>
> Eliot
> ----
> Eliot Kimber | Senior Solutions Architect | Really Strategies,
Inc.
> email:
<mailto:>
> office: 610.631.6770 | cell: 512.554.9368
> 2570 Boulevard of the Generals | Suite 213 | Audubon, PA 19403
> www.reallysi.com <http://www.reallysi.com> |
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