docbook-apps

Re: [docbook-apps] Re: should simplesect be chunked?

  • 1.  Re: [docbook-apps] Re: should simplesect be chunked?

    Posted 09-16-2008 21:24
    > ----- Original Message -----
    > From: "Norman Walsh" <ndw@nwalsh.com>
    > To: <docbook-apps@lists.oasis-open.org>
    > Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2008 1:39 PM
    > Subject: [docbook-apps] Re: should simplesect be chunked?


    > The important semantic distinction between simplesect and the other
    > sectioning elements isn't merely that they're leaves, it's that *they
    > never occur in the table of contents*.

    > http://docbook.org/tdg5/en/html/simplesect#d0e205533

    Hi Norm,
    Well, that's new information. That statement was not in TDG versions prior
    to DocBook 5. The current TDG for 4.5 does not mention that processing
    expectation:

    http://docbook.org/tdg/en/html/simplesect.html

    Even in TDG5, there is no explanation of *why* it is to be excluded from
    the TOC. That implies further usage expectations that are not expressed in
    the doc. I think it would be helpful if that were expanded a bit, perhaps
    with
    more examples of simplesect usage.

    Although this TOC-exclusion feature was written into the original
    stylesheets, currently
    there is a $simplesect.in.toc parameter in both the FO and HTML stylesheets
    that turns it on (set to zero by default). Maybe that statement in TDG
    should say
    "not usually" instead of "never". 8^)

    I think that since simplesect has been around for a long time as just a
    terminal section with not much else in the way of usage guidelines, I would
    think that we shouldn't dictate too much how it should be used now.

    If it doesn't add to much complication to the already complicated chunking
    templates, maybe I'll just add another parameter "chunk.simplesects" and
    set it to zero by default. That would give those who use simplesect as
    a significant section the option of treating it as other sections.

    Bob Stayton
    Sagehill Enterprises
    bobs@sagehill.net