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[JoAnn Hackos]

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Subject: RE: [dita] Keywords in DITA




From: "JoAnn Hackos" <joann.hackos@comtech-serv.com>
To: "Esrig, Bruce \(Bruce\)" <esrig@lucent.com>,"Don Day" <dond@us.ibm.com>,"Paul Prescod" <paul.prescod@blastradius.com>
Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2005 08:45:08 -0700









I wonder if Bruce could provide an example of the 
distinction between keyword as description and keyword as content. I'm not 
certain I understand how they are being distinguished from this 
explanation.
 
JoAnn 
JoAnn T. Hackos, PhD
President
Comtech Services, 
Inc.
710 Kipling Street, Suite 400
Denver, CO 80215
303-232-7586
joann.hackos@comtech-serv.com
http://www.comtech-serv.com 
 




From: Esrig, Bruce (Bruce) 
[mailto:esrig@lucent.com]
Sent: Wednesday, March 09, 2005 1:13 
AM
To: 'Don Day'; Paul Prescod
Cc: 
dita@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: RE: [dita] Keywords in 
DITA



A 
future release of the architecture should provide language to 
distinguish between two specializations of the archetype: a description 
(keyword-as-description) and an object (keyword-of-content). This would provide 
a clear distinction that would cue authors and processing about the difference 
in purpose.
 
Not 
all field names or function names make good search terms, so including all such 
identifiers among the candidate targets for search impairs the 
specificity that users want when they search. This means there is a benefit to 
being able to mark up identifiers for special presentation in output 
(keyword-of-content) without including them among search 
terms.
 
Indexterm is really a special case of 
keyword-as-description. Keyword-as-description could be permitted in content to 
permit authors to identify text that is to be used as a search target. It is 
often convenient to mark up identifying text on first 
occurrence.
 
The clash comes when an author wants both usages 
simultaneously: keyword-as-description to indicate a search target and 
keyword-of-content because the identifier is a special identifier in the 
content. The keyword-of-content usage must take precedence. In order to 
accomodate the keyword-as-description usage, the author could choose to write 
some descriptive text to hold the keyword-as-description usage, or else place a 
keyword-as-description entry in a metadata context. Although it is tempting to 
use the unspecialized markup in these cases, there is still the question of 
whether to trigger an index entry, so a third specialization of the archetype 
(keyword-desc-and-content) may be 
needed.
 
Best wishes,
 
Bruce 
Esrig