Re: DOCBOOK: FAQ: XML solution for conditonal sections

[Bob Stayton <bobs at caldera dot com>]

On Fri, Dec 21, 2001 at 10:28:04AM -0800, Bernd Kreimeier wrote:
> 
> Question:
> Is there a canonical way to implement an equivalent to SGML marked
> sections in DocBook XML. I have prowled list archives a bit, and
> followed up on past proposals like XCond. My assumption right now is
> that this is best done by introducing a common attribute, and then
> attempting to modify the XSLT process to omit all content contained
> in an element without the desired attributes? If this is an FAQ and 
> there are examples for the taking, I appreciate pointers.

Indeed, this is a FAQ:

http://www.dpawson.co.uk/docbook/styling/profiling.html

It's called "profiling" in the FAQ, and it's done with
XML attributes and a XSLT preprocessor stylesheet.

> Some more comments:
> A preprocessor solution as frequently suggested does not seem to work,
> as introducing a non-XML element in XML source will break XML-aware
> editing tools.

> While SGML INCLUDE/IGNORE entities aren't the most flexible or elegant
> solution, they do the job in a straightforward way.
> 
> The DocBook guide seems to lack a "Adding an attribute" example?

See Example 5.1 in
http://www.docbook.org/tdg/en/html/ch05.html#ch05-write

-- 

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