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Re: Re: RFE 472229: Allow HTML Tables in DocBook


Norman Walsh wrote:
> 
> / Eduardo Gutentag <eduardo.gutentag@sun.com> was heard to say:
> | Option 2 makes much more sense to me.
> 
> Why?

Aw shoot, I had to speak up, didn't I?

Off the top of my head:
a) because historically Docbook never attempted to get ahead of future 
tools or sooner-or-later use cases

b) because I have a hard time thinking of a use case where one would
want or need to intermix CALS and HTML tables in the same document 

c) because the thought of mixing CALS and HTML namespaces within the
same table makes my head spin too fast (I know that's not what's proposed, 
but the line separating the two is indeed thin)

d) because (unless I blinked too slowly) Docbook still supports DTDs,
which do not have namespace support - so option 1 would in effect
precipitate a radical fork between DTD and W3C Schema Docbook versions

e) because tools vendors (i.e. editor vendors) would probably have a much
harder time implementing option 1 than option 2.

> 
> My thoughts are:
> 
> 1. We're moving towards more modular, reusable documentation. Sooner or later,
>    probably sooner, someone's going to want to include a fragment that uses one
>    table model along with a fragment that uses the other. And that won't be
>    possible.
> 
> 2. This is exactly the problem namespaces are supposed to solve, isn't it? :-)
> 
> 3. Won't tool vendors have to support mixed namespaces "real soon now"
>    anyway, for things like XLink, SVG, MathML, etc. So tools will
>    actually be able to handle this?
> 
> | Norman Walsh wrote:
> | >
> | > See http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=472229&group_id=21935&atid=384107
> [...]
> | > There appear to be two solutions:
> | >
> | > 1. Use namespaces.
> | >
> | > 2. Force the user to make a top-level choice by having, effectively,
> | >    two DTDs. This would mean a document could contain *either* HTML tables
> | >    *or* CALS tables, but not both.
> 
>                                         Be seeing you,
>                                           norm
> 
> --
> Norman Walsh <ndw@nwalsh.com>      | He who fails to become a giant
> http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/ | need not remain content with being
> Chair, DocBook Technical Committee | a dwarf.--Ernest Bramah

-- 
Eduardo Gutentag               |         e-mail: eduardo.gutentag@Sun.COM
XML Technology Center          |         Phone:  (510) 986-3651
Sun Microsystems Inc.          |


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