NON-DELIVERY of: Re: SGML structure clarification

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Geoff writes:

> What I was getting at, albeit unclearly ....

Hey, I thought it was pretty clear.

> 1. Can you structure a document visually so that the same image works
> equally well online and on paper?

Posed this way, I'd have to say no. The reasons you posed in your original
posting say it all. About the best you could aim for would be a compromise
that worked equally well on both. But then again, that's why I like going
*from* structure *to* display because you can optimise the presentation for
the medium.

>  2. Can you structure the flow of information so that the online
>  sequence works equally well on paper?

This is certainly possible. One of the advantages of an electronic source
is that you can layer mutliple pathways onto the content. The print
sequence could just be set up as one particular pathway. SGML would, in
fact, enable you to specify orders of components down to the individual
element level by a number of different mechanisms. For example, the para
element could contain a psequence attribute that specified it's order in
print sequence (this is *not* an approach I'm recommending, mind you...
just an illustration of how such a thing could be accomplished). So you
could have

<para psequence=2>This is paragraph #27 ...
...
<para psequence=1>This is paragraph #73 ...
...
<para psequence=3>This is paragraph #216 ...

in your online version. Online, the contents occur in the order shown, with
lots of other stuff in between. On printing the document out, para #73
comes first, followed by para #27 (and nothing inbetween)  etc. Lots of
other ways to do the same thing.

Consider this added benefit: for certain types of documents, you could
solve the ugly problem of redundant text. For example, if I have a section
that defines the FRUMBAH command, I can write it once. I can include it in
sequence, in both my online and my paper versions, by reference. It appears
in sequence however many times you need it, but you only have one write up
of it to produce and maintain.

I'm going on vacation and will be gone until the 5th, so please don't take
a few days silence as lack of interest. This is a cool thread.

Best regards,

/chet

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