Terminology markup [was: Re[2]: DOCBOOK: Keywords]

[Andrey Taranov <andrey at custis dot ru>]

At Wednesday, September 27, 2000, 1:33:04 PM Ian Moor wrote:

IM> I have wondered about language keywords, for example in chapter 2 of the definitive
IM> guide "the most frequently used keywords are PUBLIC, SYSTEM, ..." However the docbook
IM> element keyword  is meant for describing a document. The nearest element seems to be
IM> token.

In our system we currently use <glossterm>'s for the keywords of a subject area.
This element is closest in meaning to marking up subject terminology. We also
use <SystemItem>, which may be suitable for language keywords (but that's a
matter of taste, I think).

IMHO, DocBook is poorly suited to some tasks, one example being a programming
language description/reference. This is because DocBook was designed with C/C++
in mind. It allows to mark up C programs/libraries docs at a very detailed
level. UNIX man pages also go fairly well. But in other fields... New
programming languages (Java also) were already mentioned. As another example,
our team is having constant difficulties with database design docs.

<Sidenote> Yes, I understand, that some purity ambitions being tamed, there is
enough element types in DocBook to mark up just about any computer
documentation.

-- 
Best regards,
 Andrey                            mailto:andrey@custis.ru