I would prefer to avoid another namespace, since I think of this as being
an integral part of the assembly model, and I think of namespaces as being
used to combine other things with DocBook. Adding a class or type attribute
would be preferable to a namespace (possibly "supplemental" -- the reasoning
is provided below) but I think a different element is a better solution.
I think "override" is not really accurate, since it implies that this element
overrides the info element that is contained in the original resource and it
may actually provide additional information. Similarly, I think that "merge"
may not be a more appropriate modifier. When I looked it up, the definition
was "To combine or unite" and that is not quite what I think is happening.
However, it seemed to be going in the right direction. After exploring
synonyms for a bit, I found "supplement" with the following definitions:
1. Something added to complete a thing, make up for a
deficiency, or extend or strengthen the whole.
2. A section added to a book or document to give further
information or to correct errors.
which seems to be what we are actually doing, that is we are either
correcting (when we provide an alternative to the title in the resource being
referenced) or providing additional information (like a titleabbrev for use
in a help system). What about infosupplement (or infosupp, although we are
not the longest element in DocBook with infosupplement). I am dropping the
dash in the name, since as you point out, there are no other instances of
hyphenated names where things are combined for elements like programlisting
or inlinemediaobject. I would favor avoiding it since it might make people
ask for adding hyphens to other elements.
I also did not camel-case the name, even though in SGML days that appears to
have been done, we have gone to lower-case since we moved to XML where case
matters and my own experience with camel-case indicates it is harder for
people to remember than all lower- or upper-case.
I would prefer merge to override although I don't consider either of them to
be accurate. I don't think adding resource to info is really making it
clearer what is going on.
Regards,
Larry Rowland
It's no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction.
Fiction has to make sense.
- Mark Twain
Original Message-----
From: Bob Stayton [mailto:bobs@sagehill.net]
Sent: Monday, February 22, 2010 10:26 AM
To: DocBook Technical Committee
Subject: [docbook-tc] assembly metadata container
I'm following up on my action item from the last DocBook TC. We agreed that