Re: [dita] Keywords in DITA

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Subject: Re: [dita] Keywords in DITA




From: Michael Priestley <>
To: "Paul Prescod" <>
Date: Mon, 7 Mar 2005 22:32:18 -0500




Hi Paul, welcome to the list.

The reason we support keyword in both
locations (as well as a bunch of specializations of keywords) is to allow
the same range of semantic specificity in both places. For example, <apiname>
is a type (specialization) of keyword. If we have an occurrence of an <apiname>
in content, we may also want to index it specifically for search, if the
occurrence is significant. So we add it to the keyword list for the topic.
But just because it is a keyword for the topic doesn't mean it stops being
an <apiname>. In both contexts, being able to distinguish <apiname>blue</apiname>
from <wintitlel>blue</wintitle> is worthwhile. So we support
the same keyword element in both places.

In other words, <apiname> as content
and <apiname> as keyword for search are both still <apiname>s,
so it doesn't make sense to have a different set of elements just because
they are processed differently: their containment context (body or prolog)
 is enough, and allows us to infer processing behavior without undermining
the common semantics.


Michael Priestley










"Paul Prescod"
<> 
03/07/2005 08:28 PM




To
<>


cc



Subject
[dita] Keywords in DITA








In computer science there are two meanings for the
word "Keyword". One

is, as Docbook puts it, "a term describing the content of a document.

The keyword applies to the document component that contains it. Keywords

are rarely displayed to a reader. Usually, they are reserved for

searching and retrieval purposes." FOLDOC[1] says: "A small set
of words

designed to convey the subject of a technical article." So the DITA

Language Reference examples of "installing", "uninstalling",
"wizards",

etc. seems to suggest this usage.


Then there are keywords in computer languages and command lines. In

other words: "A single value from an enumerated list, the name of
a

command or parameter, or a lookup key for a message" FOLDOC[1] says:

"One of a fixed set of symbols built into the syntax of a language.

Typical keywords would be if, then, else, print, goto, while, switch."

The DITA Language Reference example of "<p>The <keyword>assert</keyword>

pragma statement allows messages to be passed to the emulator,

pre-compiler, etc..." seems to ALSO suggest this usage.


I infer from the examples in the DITA specification that I should use

keyword in the FIRST sense if it occurs within the "keywords"
element

and in the SECOND sense if it occurs in document content. Is that

correct? If so, I feel that it is somewhat of a confusing combination.

 ----

 Paul Prescod

 Blast Radius XMetaL









References:

Keywords in DITA
From: "Paul Prescod" <>






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