[docbook] Re: DocBook Technical Committee Meeting Minutes: 15 September 2004

["Bob Stayton" <bobs at sagehill dot net>]

Correction to the minutes: Nancy Harrison had given her regrets for not
attending the September meeting at the August meeting.

Bob Stayton
Sagehill Enterprises
DocBook Consulting
bobs@sagehill.net


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bob Stayton" <bobs@sagehill.net>
To: "DocBook Technical Committee" <docbook-tc@lists.oasis-open.org>
Cc: <docbook@lists.oasis-open.org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 15, 2004 4:16 PM
Subject: DocBook Technical Committee Meeting Minutes: 15 September 2004


> DocBook Technical Committee Meeting Minutes: 15 September 2004
> =============================================================
>
> The DocBook Technical Committee met on Wednesday, 15 September 2004 at
> 05:00p EDT (02:00p PDT, 21:00GMT, 22:00BST, 23:00CEST, 06:00JST+,
> 02:30a India+).
>
> Agenda
>
> 1. Roll call
>
> Present: Steven Cogorno, Gary Cornelius, Paul Grosso,
> Dick Hamilton, Scott Hudson, Mark Johnson,
> Jirka Kosek, Larry Rowland, Mike Smith, Bob Stayton, Norman Walsh
>
> Regrets: none
>
> Absent: Adam Di Carlo, Nancy Harrison
>
> 2. Accepted the minutes[1] of the previous meeting
>
> 3. Next meeting: 20 October 2004.
>
> No regrets.
>
> 4. Review of the agenda.
>
> Added committee charter as item 5g.
> Added review of 4.4 as item 13a.
>
>
> 5. Review of open action items
>
>   a. Mike to provide a better proposal for choicelist markup.
>      CONTINUE
>
>   b. Bob to identify elements in DocBook that correspond to
>      valid locations of HTML forms in HTML output.
>      DONE
>
>   d. Norm to generate web pages for 4.2, 4.3, and 4.4x.
>      CONTINUE
>
>   e. Norm to write a draft Committee charter.
>      DONE
>
>   f. Gary to investigate ISO 9000 regarding guidelines for
>      accepting or rejecting requests.
>      DONE
>
> 5g. Committee charter
>
> Norm circulated a draft [2], and it was commented on by
> Karl Best of OASIS [3].   Some of the comments may
> not apply to a committee that mostly does maintenance
> of an existing standard.  Norm will ask Karl for
> clarification.  We also need to set specific goals, and Norm
> suggested that DocBook 4.4 be done this year, and
> DocBook 5.0 be done next year.
>
> Based on Karl's comments, Norm
> will create a second draft for the next meeting.
>
> ACTION: Norm to write second draft charter.
>
> 6. Status of DTD version 4.4 beta
>
> Norm released DocBook 4.4b2 on 26 August. [4]
> He suggested everyone test drive it so that we
> can designate it a CR1 release at the next meeting.
>
> 7. Bug in Simplified DocBook 1.1 CR1 (Mark)
>
> Norm identified two bugs: one in subscript and superscript,
> and one in system ids pointing to Norm's hard drive.
> Suggestions for fixes were accepted.
>
> ACTION: Norm to release CR2.
>
>
> 8. "Committee Draft" vs. "OASIS Standard".
>
> Bob related the story of one vendor who was holding off
> on implementing DocBook 4.3 because it was labeled as
> a "Committee Draft", which implies that it is not finished.
> Norm reported that OASIS removed the designation "Committee Specification"
> and so only "OASIS Standard" is available.  The latter requires
> more work to receive because the full OASIS membership must vote.
> Norm thinks the Committee Specification designation may come
> back.
>
> ACTION: Norm to write to OASIS requesting restoration of Committee
> Specification
> or equivalent.  He should cite Bob's vendor example.
>
>
> 9. Annotation proposal (Mike).  [5] [6]
>
> Norm implemented an annotation scheme based on Mike's proposal. [7]
> Discussion of two content models for annotation: simple and
> complex. simple is basically text and would be used in
> output attribute values and tool tips).  Complex could include
> paras, lists, tables, etc. and would be presented in a separate
> area.  Both are needed for different circumstances
> Larry suggested two elements with different content models:
> annotation and shortannotation or simpleannotation.
> Steve suggested a single annotation element
> with child elements determining simple or complex.
> No final decision yet.  Decided to post Norm's page and
> start a discussion on the list.
>
> ACTION: Norm to post his annotations page to the mailing list.
>
> 10. Accessibility.
>
> Discussed Larry's list [8] of potential improvements
> for accessibility.  Many can be done with an annotation
> mechanism, so they will be considered together.  Current
> use of attributes has limitations: some browsers only
> show first 100 characters of the title attribute text.
> One additional area is making tables more accessible.
> Norm will forward info from Larry about tables.
>
> ACTION: Norm to forward Larry's mail about table accessibility.
>
> ACTION: Norm to contact Mark Pilgrim, author of
> Dive Into Accessibility [9], about accessibility issues.
>
>
> 11. Discuss guidelines for accepting or rejecting requests.
>
> Gary reported on his review of ISO9000, which recommended
> that we fully document our process and results.  He suggested
> creating a flow diagram would help.  We currently use the
> SourceForge RFE mechanism to track and document the requests.
> We could be more careful in adding comments as issues are
> resolved.  We will consider this item again at the
> next meeting.
>
>
> 12. html:form should be available in more places
>    than in %divcomponent.mix;  [10] [11]
>
> Bob sent a proposal to the list [12]
> suggesting additional places where the html:form element
> could be added.  Norm proposed we adopt the proposal.
> The proposal was accepted.
>
>
> 13. Review of Requests for Enhancement
>
>     To browse a specific RFE, enter the URL (on one line):
>
>       http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&;;
>       group_id=21935&atid=384107&aid=XXXX
>
>       1014806 Add protocol to systemitem class list
>
> Norm proposed that we accept this.
> The committee approved this request.
>
>       1025286 Support xml:space
>
> Norm proposed that we accept this.
> The committee approved this request.
>
>
> 13a.  Review DocBook 4.4 content.
>
> Based on the actions at this meeting, the committee decided
> to add the following to 4.4:
>
> - Add 'protocol' to systemitem class list.
> - Add optional xml:space="preserved" attribute to verbatim elements.
> - Add html:forms hook to 9 more parameter entities.
>
> ACTION: Norm to produce DocBook 4.4CR1 this week.
>
>
> Meeting adjourned at 6:25pm EDT.
> ***********************************************************
>
>      The following RFEs are awaiting action items
>
>       973446 Replace Footnote with Annotation
>       413389 Enhance METHODNAME and VARNAME (Norm, generic linking)
>       431411 RFE 70: add generic linking capability (Norm)
>       522552 Add title attribute to <ulink> element (Mike, annotations)
>       565637 Associate non-inline image with link (Norm, generic linking)
>       574880 Add annotation element (Mike)
>       623524 (Re)Consider "choicelist" markup (Mike)
>
>      The following RFEs are identified as V5.0 or later
>
>       974285 Check floatstyle/float attributes
>       958393 remove default class value from productname
>       531851 Remove inline person name elements
>       532088 Remove RevHistory from qandaentry
> - ---
>
> [1] http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/docbook-tc/200408/msg00012.html
> [2] http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/docbook-tc/200409/msg00009.html
> [3] http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/docbook-tc/200409/msg00010.html
> [4] http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/docbook/200408/msg00029.html
> [5] http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/docbook-tc/200406/msg00003.html
> [6] http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/docbook-tc/200406/msg00005.html
> [7] http://norman.walsh.name/2004/09/10/annotations
> [8] http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/docbook-tc/200408/msg00002.html
> [9] http://diveintoaccessibility.org/
> [10]
http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/docbook-apps/200406/msg00081.html
> [11] http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/docbook/200404/msg00032.html
> [12]  http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/docbook-tc/200409/msg00011.html
>
> Bob Stayton
> Sagehill Enterprises
> DocBook Consulting
> bobs@sagehill.net
>
>