RE: [dita] Cascading of xml:lang attribute

["Su-Laine Yeo" <su-laine.yeo@justsystems.com>]

Thanks Robert. 

We've received some quite strongly-worded comments from DITA users that having to set xml:lang on every single topic file would be an enormous hassle. For the case of a mostly-French document that pulls in one English topic, it is reasonable to ask users to set xml:lang="fr" once on the map, and xml:lang="en" once on the English topic. However I don't see why we would also require users to set xml:lang="fr" on every French topic if they want those topics to be processed in French. 

I see this as being a substantial change over the DITA 1.1 spec which adds work for users, and I can't see the practical benefit.

Su-Laine


-----Original Message-----
From: Robert D Anderson [mailto:robander@us.ibm.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, August 03, 2010 12:33 PM
To: Su-Laine Yeo
Cc: dita@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: Re: [dita] Cascading of xml:lang attribute

Trying to remember the discussion of this - I believe that your reading of
the 1.2 spec is correct.

I think the idea was that the language is a property of the document itself
that travels with the document, and cannot be set or reset from above. For
example, if you have a map with all French topics, but then reference an
existing English topic somewhere else that does not set xml:lang, the fact
that you're referencing it from a French map does not make the topic
French. Following the spec's recommendation to ensure xml:lang is on the
root element of every document helps bypass this issue and any resulting
confusion.

Robert D Anderson
IBM Authoring Tools Development
Chief Architect, DITA Open Toolkit


                                                                           
             "Su-Laine Yeo"                                                
             <su-laine.yeo@jus                                             
             tsystems.com>                                              To 
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                                       [dita] Cascading of xml:lang        
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Hi everyone,


A bug report for the DITA Open Toolkit has raised some interesting
discussion:


https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=725074&aid=3038532&group_id=132728


Users need to know if they need to set the xml:lang attribute only in their
primary map, or for every topic. Developers of processors need to know if
processors should look at the map when deciding what locale to use when
displaying topics.


Say you have a <note> element in a DITA topic that is referenced by a DITA
map. My reading of the DITA 1.1 spec is that language should be determined
as follows:


1) Get xml:lang from the <note> element. If xml:lang is not defined there,
get it from the closest ancestor within the topic.


2) If xml:lang not defined in an ancestor of <note> within the topic, get
it from the <topicref> in the map.


3) If xml:lang not defined in the <topicref>, get it from closest ancestor
of the <topicref> within the map.


4) If xml:lang is not defined in any ancestor of the <topicref> within the
map, the processor should assume a default value.


However, the draft DITA 1.2 spec contains the sentence “The @xml:lang value
does not cascade from one map to another or from a map to a topic”, which
seems to imply that the language should be determined as follows:


1) Get xml:lang from the <note> element. If xml:lang is not defined there,
get it from the closest ancestor within the topic.


2) If xml:lang not defined in an ancestor of <note> within the topic, the
processor should assume a default value.


Is this the intention?


Su-Laine


Su-Laine Yeo
Solutions Consultant


JustSystems Canada, Inc.
Office: 778-327-6356
syeo@justsystems.com


www.justsystems.com


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