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Re: [dita] attribute extensibility - summary

From: Dana Spradley
To: [email protected]
Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2006 21:18:00 -0000

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Subject: Re: [dita] attribute extensibility - summary

From: Dana Spradley <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2006 14:22:34 -0700

I'm sorry, but this really does seem like low-hanging fruit to me.

What's the point of putting the general attribute in now and support roundtripping through that, if we could do this instead?

We're not talking about attribute specialization here, but mere attribute addition.

If we're not doing it now, I'd like to see it in 1.2 - and to see it done right, I'd like to take the leadership of this enhancement myself.

In return, I would remove my objections to what you're doing with conditional attribute specialization - since now I can see it in context as a very targeted solution for a particular kind of universal attribute, and not as a stalking horse for requiring every added attribute to submit to some kind of specialization rubric.

--Dana

Erik Hennum wrote:

Hi, Bruce:

About Item 2, I hasten to note that the proposal for extension by addition for properties is a potential direction rather than something that's ready for implementation.

For example, we will need to think through the implications of hiding and restoring additions during roundtripping to the general form and back to the specialized form. We will want to think through that problem along with other potential enhancements of the capabilities of specialization.

I'm confident that, given the minds involved in the DITA Technical Committee, we will be able to solve those issues, but even I would agree that they are out of scope for DITA 1.1

My intent with the posting was to suggest in a more concrete way that we can build on attribute specialization to much greater capability later on -- not to add more to the DITA 1.1 plate. I'm sorry if I didn't make that clear.

Thanks,

Erik Hennum
[email protected]

[email protected]>">"Esrig, Bruce (Bruce)" <[email protected]>

"Esrig, Bruce (Bruce)" <[email protected]>
04/27/2006 11:18 AM

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"'Paul Prescod'" <[email protected]>, Dana Spradley <[email protected]>, Michael Priestley <[email protected]>

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[email protected]

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RE: [dita] attribute extensibility - summary

I thought that was the strength of it ... no action items!

I thought I was clearing away side issues, leaving the following:
Item 1. Michael's proposal
Item 2. An alternate proposal, yet to be named (see next paragraph)

Item 2. Now that Dana Spradley has extracted the attribute extension thoughts from Erik's "Extreme" paper, we seem to have two viable approaches on the table.

I had not realized that specialization of an element could both
- restrict the content
- add attributes

So we'll need to look at that.

Bruce

References:
- RE: [dita] attribute extensibility - summary
  - From: Erik Hennum <[email protected]>