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Re: Re: details of DocBook versioning policy


/ "Matt G." <matt_g_@hotmail.com> was heard to say:
| BTW, does the TC use any sort of regression suite (e.g. documents that
| use each aspect of the content model from a given DTD version that are
| validated against each new DTD from the same major rev)?  It doesn't
| seem like it'd be much work to maintain, once setup.

The TC has no official regression suite. I have a bunch of test docs
that I try and we post betas well in advance of the actual release in
the hope that everyone will try the new version with their favorite
content.

| >I've tried to make the stylesheets support all versions of the DTD.
| >Most of our backwards incompatible changes have, in fact, been
| >fairly minor.
| 
| How big of a limitation has this been?  How much additional work has
| it required?

Not much. We've very rarely changed existing semantics, the only
backwards incompatible changes that I can think of involved no longer
supporting a given element or a given element in a particular
context. But the template or contruction rules for the element still
exist, so it just works out.

| I'd like to think that the best approach for writing stylesheets is to
| maintain them as specific to the DTD's major rev.  Perhaps all the
| commonality between the various major revs can be factored out into a
| common module that they all share, though it's debatable which
| approach results in a higher maintenance burden.  This is certainly
| the approach I'll consider, in devising my customization layer.

That turns out to be a pain. Consider the introduction of db31.dsl which
was mostly along exactly those lines. Now I often get irritated by the
fact that some functionality is in dbXXX.dsl but some is also in db31.dsl.
For DocBook, I think it's simpler to treat the stylesheets as stylesheets
over the union of DTD versions.

| BTW, I noticed that the Apache XML group used a non-DocBook
| documentation format, for their fairly substantial, XML-based
| documentation on Xerces (their C++/Java validating DOM/SAX XML
| parser).  Does anyone know why (I asked them, but have yet to receive
| a reply)?  I couldn't even find a mention of docbook, in the mailing
| list archives (other than regarding issues their libraries had w/ it).

It's been discussed more than once, so it should be in the archives.
I don't represent Apache, but my recollection from watching the
discussions go by is that it is mostly a matter of inertia. They did
their DTD (stylebook?) before they noticed that DocBook existed and
now they've got tools and legacy.

| _________________________________________________________________
| Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp

No, thank you :-)

                                        Be seeing you,
                                          norm

-- 
Norman Walsh <ndw@nwalsh.com>      | One should never make one's debut
http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/ | with a scandal. One should reserve
Chair, DocBook Technical Committee | that to give interest to one's old
                                   | age.--Oscar Wilde

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