RE: Innovative use of DIAL for IT management

Hello Johannes,

I think that there is a distinction to make here between DISelect processing, within DIAL, and subsequent adaptation that might result from processing the resulting DIAL.

The DISelect module within DIAL is designed to help content authors control expression of content within their markup. In fact, DISelect can be used in line or externally to DIAL. I'll be covering this in a forthcoming revision of the DISelect Primer. Where DISelect is used in an XML document, then its input and output do need to be XML compliant. Where DISelect is used in line within DIAL it controls expression of various parts of the DIAL document. The result is a modified DIAL document where the DISelect statements have been replaced by the appropriately selected content.

Typically, the resulting DIAL is then subsequently processed by further adaptation that can result in it being transformed into any kind of markup, or indeed non-markup, data stream. Current implementations of DIAL do exactly this and can generate any of dozens of types of output stream.

So in terms of your question, the final transformation is still within the adaptation step but is something that applies after DISelect processing modifies the DIAL.

I hope that clarifies the situation.

Best wishes
Rhys

-----Original Message-----
From: www-di-request@w3.org [mailto:www-di-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Johannes Koch
Sent: 18 October 2006 16:11
To: www-di@w3.org
Subject: Re: Innovative use of DIAL for IT management


Rotan Hanrahan schrieb:
> -     Is a document compliant to DIAL if it is XML format?
>
> No. The fragments being generated by the adaptors could, as suggested,
> be valid subsets of a DIAL document. As DIAL is itself an XML language,
> the adaptors must also be producing XML.

Is a DIAL adaptor really required to only produce XML? What about
non-XML formats (e.g. HTML)? Or is this transformation considered to be
a process following the adaptation?
--
Johannes Koch
In te domine speravi; non confundar in aeternum.
                             (Te Deum, 4th cent.)

Received on Wednesday, 18 October 2006 15:53:29 UTC