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Subject: RE: [dita] Cascading of xml:lang attribute
Thanks Robert. We've received some quite strongly-worded comments from DITA users that having to set xml:lang on every single topic file would be an enormous hassle. For the case of a mostly-French document that pulls in one English topic, it is reasonable to ask users to set xml:lang="fr" once on the map, and xml:lang="en" once on the English topic. However I don't see why we would also require users to set xml:lang="fr" on every French topic if they want those topics to be processed in French. I see this as being a substantial change over the DITA 1.1 spec which adds work for users, and I can't see the practical benefit. Su-Laine -----Original Message----- From: Robert D Anderson [mailto:robander@us.ibm.com] Sent: Tuesday, August 03, 2010 12:33 PM To: Su-Laine Yeo Cc: dita@lists.oasis-open.org Subject: Re: [dita] Cascading of xml:lang attribute Trying to remember the discussion of this - I believe that your reading of the 1.2 spec is correct. I think the idea was that the language is a property of the document itself that travels with the document, and cannot be set or reset from above. For example, if you have a map with all French topics, but then reference an existing English topic somewhere else that does not set xml:lang, the fact that you're referencing it from a French map does not make the topic French. Following the spec's recommendation to ensure xml:lang is on the root element of every document helps bypass this issue and any resulting confusion. Robert D Anderson IBM Authoring Tools Development Chief Architect, DITA Open Toolkit "Su-Laine Yeo" <su-laine.yeo@jus tsystems.com> To <dita@lists.oasis-open.org> 08/03/2010 03:11 cc PM Subject [dita] Cascading of xml:lang attribute Hi everyone, A bug report for the DITA Open Toolkit has raised some interesting discussion: https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=725074&aid=3038532&group_id=132728 Users need to know if they need to set the xml:lang attribute only in their primary map, or for every topic. Developers of processors need to know if processors should look at the map when deciding what locale to use when displaying topics. Say you have a <note> element in a DITA topic that is referenced by a DITA map. My reading of the DITA 1.1 spec is that language should be determined as follows: 1) Get xml:lang from the <note> element. If xml:lang is not defined there, get it from the closest ancestor within the topic. 2) If xml:lang not defined in an ancestor of <note> within the topic, get it from the <topicref> in the map. 3) If xml:lang not defined in the <topicref>, get it from closest ancestor of the <topicref> within the map. 4) If xml:lang is not defined in any ancestor of the <topicref> within the map, the processor should assume a default value. However, the draft DITA 1.2 spec contains the sentence “The @xml:lang value does not cascade from one map to another or from a map to a topic”, which seems to imply that the language should be determined as follows: 1) Get xml:lang from the <note> element. If xml:lang is not defined there, get it from the closest ancestor within the topic. 2) If xml:lang not defined in an ancestor of <note> within the topic, the processor should assume a default value. Is this the intention? 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/
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