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Re: New element for Step alternatives?


Paul-
Not all the occurances of Alternative contain the "if" action branching...
the first example I provided in my reponse to Dave Pawson from the 
"To Change the Alignment of the Table" procedure has multiple options
to choose from, a series of "to do {whatever}" alternatives. 

We want to have distinct markup to use when we have a "choice" of actions,
rather than a series of actions.

There is still alot we can do which is useful with even this half way 
utilization of if-ness. 

Using Role=branch wouldn't work for us.  This Step Alternative proposal is
part of a larger attempt to make consistant the way writers author
Procedure content, and it is very similar to the current work-around we are 
trying to get away from.

Sabine-
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
	>
	>I don't know if my response to Dave Pawson as well as the additional 
	>examples provide a better context for you, but your example isn't quite
	>what I had in mind-- as the "fork" in the action path is determined
	>by whether the Volume Manager is or isn't running.
	
	Right, that was exactly my point:  that your new markup wasn't needed
	to represent a different structure per se, but that the content (e.g.,
	the appearance of the word 'if') was driving your desire for the new
	markup.
	
	>1. Check if the Volume Manager is running.
	>
	>   * If it is, Pour yourself a cup of coffee, and procede to Step 2.
	>  
	>   * If it isn't, start the Volume Manager by doing the following:
	>
	>        a. Log in as root.
	>
	>        b. Type /etc/init.d/volmgt start.
	>        
	>2. Here is the next thing in both instances...
	>
	>So, you wouldn't get yourself a cup of coffee then log in as root...
	>you would do either one OR the other. (^:
	
	Yes, I understood that.
	
	>In this case, the word "if" is significant, as it indicates that the user
	>should select one action or the other.
	
	Yes, this is what I was figuring and trying to confirm.
	
	So the fact is that either step or branch markup would work for the
	structural content you have, but you want to have distinctive markup 
	to use when you have the word 'if' in your text.
	
	But I note that you're only going half way.  If you're saying that
	the if-ness of the text is key and the semantic implication is that
	you skip some steps and "goto" another point in the procedure, then
	you should want markup to indicate what the "if test clause" is and
	a pointer/idref of where to go when the test clause is true.
	
	I agree this probably seems like over kill for a DTD that is primarily
	to produce documentation (after all, we aren't trying to re-invent
	the IETM DTD).
	
	But then part of me thinks that if you aren't really going to represent
	your if-ness in markup to the point where you can do anything useful
	with it, why bother to go in that direction at all.  This is what is
	making me hesitate with this whole proposal.  
	
	Maybe all we need is a role="branch" attribute (or whatever) on the step tag.
	
	paul



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