SGML: Groves (Denny-Brown)

SGML: Groves (Denny-Brown)


Subject: Re: Observations on Seattle Conference
Date: Fri, 30 Aug 1996 19:44:54 -0400
From: Derek Denny-Brown <derdb@techno.com>
Newsgroup: comp.text.sgml
------------------------------------------------------------------------- [len bullard] > Eliot, can you comment on how much of this grove stuff > would be exposed to an author or should be? well, I am not Eliot, but I think I am qualified to try an answer this question... In general, groves just provide a very precise, structured for for specifying locations of data in a document. The "default" HyTime grove plan for a SGML document will act very much like the ESIS model used in the original 10744 text. In fact for most purposes, it will be exactly the same. You will still use treeloc to locate in a document's instance just like before. (If you have looked at the DSSSL spec you will notice that it views SGML slightly differently. DSSSL does not have the concept of a pseudo-element, defined in 8.4.2.2 of ISO 10744. HyTime uses a sligntly different grove plan as it's default, where one of the primary differences from an author's point of view is the use of pseudo-elements.) Groves are usefull to an author for 2 primary reasons: 1) They are a specific definition of the structure that is located over by the various HyTime and SDQL location queries 2) They provide for a complete specification of a document, allowing an author to (potentially) locate ANYTHING in a document, down to a record end which was displaced because of a inclusion. Not every implementation need provide all of this detail, and it is expected that most will not (well, at least I expect that), but the potential is there. The level to which an author needs to understand groves depends on the author. In an ideal world, they would not _need_ to even know they exist. It is my opinion that the authoring tools should abstract all of that. What is necessary for an author to understand is the various types of HyTime locators and how they differ. A good understanding of the different types of location addressing will allow an author to write more maintainable documents. (i.e. carefull use of location via name, with minimal, specific positioning from that name, rather than giant location addresses rooted at the document element, etc.) -derek --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Derek Denny-Brown <derdb@techno.com> | Technical Staff @ TechnoTeacher, Inc. http://www.techno.com/~derdb/ | work-phone: (716) 389-0963 SGML/HyTime/DSSSL/WWW | http://www.techno.com/