Re: XML-based Help Authoring tools for customized help

["Mark Baker" <listsub -at- analecta -dot- com>]

France Baril wrote:

> I would tend to agree with you on the fact that with docbook you choose to
use XML with some
> constraints. However, a docbook document is an XML document (the shelf is
not a hammer).

I would certainly agree with you that the language is commonly used that
way. That does not change the fact that it is misleading language. A Docbook
document is commonly and misleadingly called an XML document. That don't
make it right.

> You can store, parse, transform, search a docbook document as you would
any other XML document.

No you can't. You can store it in any generic container. But if you try to
store it in a container that expects a Pinnacles document (for instance) it
will be rejected.

You can parse it, because all a parser does is report structure. However, it
you were to include validation in you parse and tried to validate it against
an ATA100 DTD it would fail.

All transformations are specific to the types they transform, so if you sent
it to a transformation routine designed for SVG documents, the
transformation would fail.

Searches also work only with the data formats they are designed for. Try to
search a Docbook document with a search routine designed for EBXML documents
and you will get no results.

Eric is absolutely right: If you have a Docbook document you can store,
parse, transform, or search it just like any other Docbook document, but not
like any other XML document.

> I will not argue on the word adopting, but I would NOT tell someone using
docbook that they
> are NOT using XML...

In that sense they are using a whole hierarchy of things:

They are using an eight-bit binary data encoding.
They are using a Unicode character set encoding
They are using a UTF-8 character number encoding (or another one)
They are using a XML syntax encoding
They are using a DocBook content model

But at each step up that hierarchy you are creating something more specific
and less general. DocBook is an application of XML, but it is not XML
itself. In the same way, XML is an application of Unicode, but it is not
Unicode itself. Unicode is an application of eight-bit binary data encoding,
but it is not eight bit-binary data encoding itself.

Now you can argue that this is an pedantic distinction if you like, but the
fact of the matter is that many people are mislead on precisely this point,
and are led into costly mistakes as a consequence. People hear that XML will
give them the ability to store, organize, manage, transform, and deliver
their content in any way they like. They are then told that the easiest way
to get to XML is to use Docbook. They then assume that using Docbook will
enable them to store, organize, manage, transform, and deliver their content
in any way they like, which, of course it won't. Docbook is not XML. Docbook
is Docbook.  When costly mistakes result from the failure to appreciate
subtle distinctions, it pays to be pedantic.

Mark Baker
Analecta Communications



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