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Bug #558 ยป para.txt

Tim Bergsma, 08/22/2002 09:25 AM

 
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Tim Bergsma, 8-22-2002, Suggestions for content of eml-paragraph.
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As per the eml conference call action items, I am suggesting elements that, as children of paragraph, would give eml the ability to represent hierarchically structured text.  Below, I consider both xhtml and DocBook element sets.  I am suggesting a few other elements that are relatively common, are presentation-neutral, and represent features typically available in "methods" sections of research publications.
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I divide elements into 4 categories:  should include (I consider essential), could include (I'd like to see them, but will concede if opposed), could exlude (I don't want to see them, but would concede if opposed) and should exclude (I really think eml shouldn't bother with them).
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Items in comma-separated groups need to be adopted or rejected together.
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XHTML, under p
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should include:
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ul, ol, li; (provide recursive nesting of content, can themselves contain paragraphs)
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i; (universal convention for indicating species names)
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could include:
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sub, sup; (needed for clarity in units, etc)
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u; (historical alternative to i)
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h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6; (for headers)
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b; (common, but more display-oriented than semantic)
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could exclude:
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blockquote;
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dl, dt, dd;
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table, tr, td;
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strike;
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should exclude:
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img;
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a;
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br;
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hr;
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pre;
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strong; (imprecise)
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em; (imprecise, at least as an alternative to i)
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li type=; (display-oriented)
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ol type=; (display-oriented).
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DocBook, under para
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should include:
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ItemizedList, OrderedList, ListItem; (corresponds to ul,ol,li)
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emphasis; (no italics in DocBook, predictably.)
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procedure, step, substep; (Great!  substeps nestable to any depth!)
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could include:
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equation;
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subscript, superscirpt;
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could exclude:
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variableList;
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blockquote;
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table;
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section, title; (sections are great, but unfortunately cannot be in paragraphs.)
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should exclude:
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(no comment).
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I think the DocBook solution is more elegant.  The fact(?) that headers are allowed in html paragraphs, but the docbook equivalent section/title is not, probably indicates a problem with html. If eml is too far along to consider grouping paragraphs into sections, we could always cast section titles as standalone paragraphs.  Care should be taken that procedure/step/substep is not redundant to our current methodStep etc.
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