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
ehennum@us.ibm.com
"Esrig,
Bruce (Bruce)" <esrig@lucent.com>
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
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