Re: Markup for variable definitions

Křištof Želechovski wrote:

> I have been confronted with documentation that says:
> 
> <DT >char *blah <DD >This variable contains lorem ipsum.

I'd consider this perfectly reasonable, and in any case, this is not an 
authoring list.

> 
> I wonder whether this markup is correct, as the variable type is not part of the variable blah, it is a property thereof.  So the DT should contain "blah" only.
> However, the information of the variable type is important to the reader and it must precede the variable name by the rules of the programming language; breaking this order would confuse the reader.
> 
> I can see two basic options:
> 
> 1. <DT >blah <DD ><PRE >char *blah;</PRE ><DD ><P >This variable contains lorem ipsum.

HTML is a text markup language.  If you have to use an unnatural word 
order you are no longer just marking up the text.

-- 
David Woolley
Emails are not formal business letters, whatever businesses may want.
RFC1855 says there should be an address here, but, in a world of spam,
that is no longer good advice, as archive address hiding may not work.

Received on Monday, 18 July 2011 20:52:22 UTC