Re: XML-based Help Authoring tools for customized help

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

Jan Henning wrote:

> > These are the capabilities of XML that you are not getting if you adopt
> > Docbook.
>
> While this is true in a way, it seems to me like sophistry: Following
> your reasoning, you do not "get the characteristics of XML" with any
> kind of XML application you are creating that involves a DTD. I.e., you
> "Get" these "characteristics" only when creating DTDs or other
> vocabulary definitions, but not when actually using them. This is no
> particular feature of DocBook, it is true of any actual use of an
> XML-based vocabulary.

Absolutely. That is indeed the point. You can take up carpentry or you can
buy a bookcase made of wood. The two activities do have wood in common, but
taking up carpentry is fundamentally different from buying a bookcase. If
you take up carpentry, you gain the ability to build a large variety of
custom tailored furniture specifically suited to your individual needs. If
you buy a bookcase, you get a place to keep books.

When choosing a bookcase, the fact that it is made of wood is a secondary
characteristics. You do not comparison shop between a wooden bookcase and
other wooden articles. You comparison shop between one wooden book case and
another wooden bookcase, and between wooden bookcases and steel bookcases.
Your number one criteria for selecting a bookcase is not whether it is made
of wood but whether it will fit in your house and hold all your books.

When you take up carpentry you gain access to the general qualities of wood
and the general capabilities of carpentry tools. You have the ability to
build a wide variety of useful objects, but you do not have any one of those
objects until you actually build it. Once you build a bookcase, however, the
bookcase has the specific properties of a bookcase, a coffee table has the
specific properties of a coffee table.

If someone says to you, "I'm thinking of taking up carpentry", it is not
sensible to respond "You should really start by buying a bookcase." Buying a
bookcase, even a wooden bookcase, will not materially advance you in
learning the art of carpentry.

Of course, if someone say to you, "I am thinking of buying a saw and some
planks because I want to make a place to store my books", then it is
reasonable to say, why not just buy a bookcase instead. And at that point,
steel bookcases also become an option to consider.

So you do need to make a distinction when you hear these requests and make
sure that you understand the motivation of the person asking the question,
and also make sure that they understand the difference.

Mark Baker
Analecta Communications



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