[osis-core] milestone_Start/End/SE

[Troy A. Griffitts]

>> <milestone_Start Milestone_SE="yoyo" type="q" 
>> subType="speaker:Joe|type:blockquote" />
>> Hi, I'm Joe.
>> <milestone_End milestone_SE="yoyo" />
>>
>>
>> is better than the elegant and understandable:
>>
>>
>> <q type="blockquote" speaker="Joe" mStart="yoyo" />
>> Hi, I'm Joe.
>> <q mEnd="yoyo />
>>
> While yours is certainly prettier, ;-), I am not sure it does not cause 
> more problems than it solves.

While I agree with the problems you state, nothing that you state 
(although certainly problems with the milestone _concept_, in general) 
are benefits of the first syntax over the second syntax, stated above.

All these problems are also problems with the <milestone_Start> elements.


> 
> This is off the cuff but here goes:
> 
> The issue is when can an element be a milestone and when can it be a 
> container? If it has required content (only a few of our elements do) 
> then it cannot ever be a milestone, unless, its parent element can 
> contain all the things you want to place between the milestones as if it 
> were a container. Perhaps an example would help:
> 
> Content model: <div> can contain <p>, <list>, PCDATA, but not <q> and we 
> allow <p> to be written as a milestone.
> 
> Content model: <p> can contain <list> and <q>
> 
> <div><p type="hereP" />some text <list>with list items</list><p 
> type="hereEndsP"/></div>
> 
> works.
> 
> but,
> 
> <div><p type="hereP"/>some text <list>with list items</list><q>Gotta 
> ya!</q><p type="hereEndsP"/></div>
> 
> does NOT, because <div> cannot contain <q>
> 
> In other words, the content model of the parent would have to match the 
> content model for the child, plus allowing the child as a milestone.
> 
> Note that:
> 
> <div><p>some text <list>with list items</list><q>Gotta ya!</q></p></div>
> 
> does work, because the <q> is now properly a child of <p> (all the 
> processor of <div> sees is the <p> and that is properly a child of 
> <div>. The proper child elements of <p> is specified separately for <p>.
> 
> I am not necessarily defending the syntax of milestones and if we can 
> agree on a better one, let's fix it before we release a lot of texts 
> using it. I don't think the solution is to allow arbitrary elements to 
> become milestones, particularly since the average user will not be 
> competent to judge when a content model problem is likely to occur.
> 
> Patrick
> 
> 
> 
> 
>>
>>  :)
>>
>> I can't see any good reason to keep things the way they are and I 
>> guess I'm asking officially that it be changed.
>>
>>     -Troy.
> 
> 
>