Re: [docbook-tc] DocBook Technical Committee Meeting Minutes: 24January 2007

[Steven Cogorno <Steven.Cogorno@Sun.COM>]

On Jan 25, 2007, at 4:20 AM, Grosso, Paul wrote:

Bob: avoid using out info if it breaks your tool. Unlikely that

having info in the schema would break the tool.

"If it hurts, don't do it."� Not something I'd like to explain

to my DocBook users, and not a good way to make a DocBook DTD

decision if you ask me.

If I understand your reasoning, Paul, you're�proposing the TC make schema decisions based on what tools can support.�That puts us in a very precarious position.� It's impossible to treat every vendor fairly.��Our primary constituency, IMO, are DocBook users -- not vendors.

If we made decisions based on tool support, many of the structures that we already have in DocBook probably would not exist now.� Given the choice between a model that is easy to implement with existing tools and a model that is not easy to implement, clearly the former is the model we should use.� But ease of implementation with a particular tool chain should not be the determinant.

Every DocBook implementation has limitations and varying levels of support.� This line of reasoning could certainly become a slippery slope such that we end up designing to the lowest-common-denominator.� I don't think that serves anyone well.

Steven Cogorno

Sun Microsystems