Re: DOCBOOK: entity reference into entity definition

[Norman Walsh <ndw at nwalsh dot com>]

/ Camille Begnis <camille@mandrakesoft.com> was heard to say:
| Thanks for your suggestion. I already thought about it, but I find it of
| no advantage compared to one file per language.... Bigger and not easy
| for maintenance: adding a new language is painfull. :(

Examination of the SGML Standard reveals that there's no possibility to 
put entity references in system or public identifier literals. And if you
don't find the marked section approach suitable, I have one more thought.
Fake it with public identifiers.

<!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V3.1//EN" [
<!ENTITY Lang "en" >
<!ENTITY ch-a PUBLIC "-//Camille Begnis//DOCUMENT Legal Notice//EN">
<!ENTITY ch-b PUBLIC "-//Camille Begnis//DOCUMENT whatever B is//EN">
...
]>
<book lang="&Lang;">
&ch-a;
&ch-b;
...
</book>

And setup a catalog file that maps

PUBLIC "-//Camille Begnis//DOCUMENT Legal Notice//EN" 
       "en/legal_notice_chapter.sgml">
PUBLIC "-//Camille Begnis//DOCUMENT Legal Notice//FR" 
       "fr/legal_notice_chapter.sgml">

etc.

When you want to switch languages, change Lang and all the //EN's
and that should be all that's required.

Not pretty, but perhaps workable :-)

                                        Be seeing you,
                                          norm

-- 
Norman Walsh <ndw@nwalsh.com>      | In science, "fact" can only mean
http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/ | "confirmed to such a degree that
Member, DocBook Editorial Board    | it would be perverse to withhold
                                   | provisional assent." I suppose
                                   | that apples might start to rise
                                   | tomorrow, but the possibility does
                                   | not merit equal time in physics
                                   | classrooms.--Stephen J. Gould