Re: The development of other explicit namespace attributes in DocBook 5.2

--=-=-=
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

"John L. Clark" <[email protected]> writes:
> It seems that this is an innovation that happened between DocBook 5.1
> and DocBook 5.2, and I am curious to read the discussion around this
> development. Does anyone know where I can read about the work that the
> TC did in coming up with this enhancement? (Maybe on the mailing list
> somewhere? It's a bit hard to search.)

It=E2=80=99s a bit impossible to search right now since OASIS seems to be
relying on MarkMail for this and MarkMail has been shut down!

I found the PR that did it[1], where I expected to find a pointer to the
discussion. (We do try to make the records easy to follow!)

Digging around in my personal email archive from around that time, I
discovered a private email discussion with a user where I suggested
using namespaced attributes and they reported that it didn=E2=80=99t work in
Oxygen.

That=E2=80=99s followed by some email with the editors (that really should =
have
been CC:=E2=80=99d to this list, apologies) where I said something like =E2=
=80=9CI
thought we already allowed this, did I screw up?=E2=80=9D and they all agre=
ed
that they thought this was allowed (they were kind enough not to comment
on whether or not I=E2=80=99d screwed up).

So it was technically added in 5.2CR3, I believe, and appears explicitly
in the release notes for 5.2CR4.

Further searching didn=E2=80=99t reveal anything specific, but I didn=E2=80=
=99t go that
far back. My guess is that after we allowed elements from any namespace
in the info wrapper, it was a short step to allowing attributes in any
namespace on any element. DocBook doesn=E2=80=99t generally try to be overly
prescriptive.

> Also, I don't see this change
> listed in The Definitive Guide[2], but it seems valuable enough to
> list as one of the major changes. What do you all think about listing
> it there?

Sure[2].

                                        Be seeing you,
                                          norm

[1] https://github.com/docbook/docbook/issues/236
[2] https://github.com/docbook/defguide/issues/107

=2D-
Norm Tovey-Walsh <[email protected]>
https://norm.tovey-walsh.com/

> Some disguised deceits counterfeit truth so perfectly that not to be
> taken in by them would be an error of judgment.--La Rochefoucauld

--=-=-=
Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc"

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----

iHUEARYKAB0WIQSEJUqRvjpp8yLt8uKDEiZHbwv9OwUCZaeCYAAKCRCDEiZHbwv9
O4IrAPoCvMxvnU8kpZWgMXFN351nndzvXnOFrDT2s5jQJNYWtQEAnry3Q8TWLPp0
san5tGTVBhTDYEkv0YYwQfshLQbhpgc=
=AtEL
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
--=-=-=--