Re: Square-bracket output of Definition in specs is bogus

/ Karl Dubost <karl@w3.org> was heard to say:
| Le 10 févr. 2005, à 11:06, Bjoern Hoehrmann a écrit :
|> That depends on whether any form of highlighting is actually necessary
|> to understand the text. I would argue that text that really depends on
|> [Definition: ... ] marks is broken and that such marks should rather be
|> understood as aids.
|
| Agreed.
|
| What about inline (span or p)
|
| <span class="definition">A software module called an <dfn
| id="xml-processor">XML processor</dfn> is used to read XML documents
| and provide access to their content and structure. It is assumed that
| an XML processor is doing its work on behalf of another module, called
| the application.</span>

That gives the reader, looking at the rendered HTML document with a
typical browser, precious little information about where the
definition begins or ends or even that the word "XML processor" is
highlighted because its use is definitional.

Is that really sufficient?

| and at the end of the document:
|
| <dl class="glossary">
| …
|  <dt id="xml-processor-def">XML processor</dt>
|  <dd>A software module called an XML processor is used to read
| XML documents and provide access to their content and structure. It is
| assumed that an XML processor is doing its work on behalf of another
| module, called the application.</dd>
| …
| </dl>

As I said before, many W3C specifications do not have glossaries at
the end and I would resist a move to require them.

If we were required to have glossaries, I'd be inclined to remove any
attempt to define the term inline and simply link it to the glossary
where the definition would occur.

Writing a definition so that it fits into the flow of the text and
stands alone in the glossary (so that one can be made automatically
From the other) is very, very hard.

                                        Be seeing you,
                                          norm

-- 
Norman.Walsh@Sun.COM / XML Standards Architect / Sun Microsystems, Inc.
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