Re: DOCBOOK: Request for comments: adding a Fileoutput element (RFE613293)

[Paul Grosso <pgrosso at arbortext dot com>]

At 01:43 2002 11 29 -0800, Bob Stayton wrote:
>> On Thu, Nov 28, 2002 at 03:35:20PM +0900, Michael Smith wrote:
>> > The DocBook Technical Committee would like to ask for comments from
>> > readers of this list about a request for an enhancement to the DocBook
>> > DTD, RFE 613293, 'Generalize programlisting'[1], which proposes that the
>> > DTD be enhanced in some way to provide a 'semantically-precise way to
>> > wrap the contents of files that are not programs'.
>
>I support the addition of a filecontents element.
>But I object to removing programlisting and literallayout.


I agree with Bob's sentiment.

However, I also fail to see the usefulness of a "filecontents" 
element unless it truly allows the incorporation of a file's contents. 

I'd like to see some element (perhaps filecontents) with an href (or 
whatever) attribute which, if assigned, means the referenced file's 
contents should be inserted in "verbatim" mode.  Presumably, if this 
attribute is set, the filecontents element would be empty (or its
contents would be ignored).

This allows the incorporation of whatever is really in the referenced
file at publication time which is a much better way of guaranteeing
that the code you print is the code that really works.

Am I missing an existing DocBook element that allows for this?

paul