Operation Definition Template

Allow me to summarize and extend what we have discussed today:

    Each operation is only an abbreviation for a change (or transition)
    of a document state. 

    We will define an operation in the ODF 1.3 specification by the
    change of the ODF XML.

    

    We have four possible types of operations

    
      
add

      
delete

      
move 

      

      
replace

    
    
"Move" & "Replace" are only listed for efficiency reason of
      the application and can be substituted by a combination of "add"
      and "delete". (Currently I have not ever used "replace" uncertain
      if we ever need it).

      "Add" & "delete" can be used for everything: components,
      properties or delimiters.

    

    
When defining the add/delete for a component, the definition of
      the location by path would be made only once in the spec. The
      definition of the add/delete of every component the operation
      description would be quite similar.

      We would mention the root element for the component and its name.
      In our first step this would be <text:p> and paragraph. We
      would reference to the ODF 1.2 specification, this can be done
      already in a generic way as our editors did a good job in the
      past: For instance, a reference to an element of the ODF 1.2
      specification in HTML would be:

http://docs.oasis-open.org/office/v1.2/os/OpenDocument-v1.2-os-part1.html#element-text_p

      for <text:p>

    

    
For an attribute as the @style:name

http://docs.oasis-open.org/office/v1.2/os/OpenDocument-v1.2-os-part1.html#attribute-text_style-name

    

    
Adding the element, would describe the attribute for this
      particular element:

http://docs.oasis-open.org/office/v1.2/os/OpenDocument-v1.2-os-part1.html#attribute-text_style-name_element-text_p

    

    
The most important part would be the XML change.

      Like the insertion of the <text:p> element, which must have
      all mandatory attributes and child elements, i.e. none.

    

    
The schema is sometimes hard and time consuming to read, a short
      ODF reference in HTML would be nice, but unfortunately the one I
      know, the one generated by the Apache ODF
        Toolkit (incubating) still lacks BNF as choice and sequence.
      I have taken the time this evening to fix the generation of the
      ODF reference in HTML, but the addition of Backus–Naur Form (BNF)
      is hardly to be done aside.

      Still I have uploaded the current HTML file to
      https://dl.dropbox.com/u/49473263/OdfReference.html

      (If someone is interesting in the Java Sources the initial
      description of my fix is here -
      http://markmail.org/message/eu5yrw6sqfkkn3v6)

    

    
Regards,

      Svante