OASIS Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) TC

 View Only

  • 1.  Clarification needed on whether xml:lang is required

    Posted 08-06-2010 21:45 
    Hi everyone,

Page 78 of the CD02 draft spec for DITA 1.2 says, "Applications should
ensure that every highest level topic element explicitly assigns the
@xml:lang attribute."

An application could ensure that xml:lang attribute is explicitly
assigned, however this would make it out of compliance with the language
reference which says that xml:lang is not a required attribute for
topics. Currently the spec seems to be saying "applications should treat
xml:lang as being required" in one place, and "applications should treat
xml:lang as being not required" in another place. 

Can we remove this sentence from page 78 to remove the contradiction? I
think our intention to encourage use of xml:lang is fulfilled in the
next sentence which says, "Authors are urged to set the @xml:lang
attribute in the source language so that the translator may change it in
the target language." Applications can provide defaults and warnings to
make it easier for authors to remember to do this.


Su-Laine

Su-Laine Yeo
Solutions Consultant 
JustSystems Canada, Inc.
Office: 778-327-6356 
syeo@justsystems.com
www.justsystems.com 
XMetaL Community Forums: http://forums.xmetal.com/


  • 2.  RE: [dita] Clarification needed on whether xml:lang is required

    Posted 08-27-2010 00:31 
    Hi everyone,

I took an action item to propose clearer wording for the spec. Here is
my attempt:

Page 78 of the CD02 draft spec for DITA 1.2 says:

"Applications should ensure that every highest level topic element
explicitly assigns the @xml:lang attribute. Authors
are urged to set the @xml:lang attribute in the source language so that
the translator may change it in the target
language. Because some translation software does not permite translators
to add elements, the absence of the
@xml:lang element from the source language may result in higher
administrative costs for translation."

I propose replacing this with:

"The @xml:lang attribute should be set explicitly at the root of each
top-level topic, as DITA processors are not required to support any
other way for users to specify the language of topic content. To
facilitate the translation process, use of the xml:lang attribute is
recommended even if the topic is in the same language as the processor
default, because some translation software makes it easier to change an
existing attribute value than to add a new one."

I suppose that as a spec is not a user guide, we could even do without
the second sentence, but I think it's useful.

Su-Laine



    
                                                
    
					
                                                    

        
                                                
				
    
                                                
    
                                                    
                                                        
                                                        Original Message


  • 3.  RE: [dita] Clarification needed on whether xml:lang is required

    Posted 08-29-2010 17:51 
    I changed it to apply to maps as well (assuming we don't have a separate paragraph for maps). I also did some tweaking of the wording in an effort to make it more spec-like and clearer.

"The @xml:lang attribute should be explicitly set on the root element of each map and topic. When the @xml:lang attribute is specified for a document, DITA processors must use the specified value to determine the language of the document. It is strongly recommended to author the @xml:lang value in the source language document, in order to facilitate the translation process, where translation tools (or translators) simply change the existing @xml:lang attribute value to the value of the target language. 

Note: Some translation tools support changing the value of an existing @xml:lang attribute, but do not support adding new markup to the document being translated. Therefore, if the author of the source language content does not set the @xml:lang attribute, it may not be possible (or may be difficult) for the translator to add the @xml:lang attribute to the translated document."

We may omit the second sentence "When the @xml:lang attribute is specified for a document, DITA processors must use the specified value to determine the language of the document." if this is said earlier in the topic -- there is no need to repeat this here.

Cheers,
Gershon



    
                                                
    
					
                                                    

        
                                                
				
    
                                                
    
                                                    
                                                        
                                                        Original Message


Related Content