Re: DOCBOOK-APPS: Calling all XSL customization layers...

[Eric Baudais <baudais kkpsi org>]

> --- Begin Message ---
> Norm-
>
> The GNOME Documentation Project has been talking about this very
> thing!!!  We have made some extensive customizations for the 1.45
> stylesheets and now they do not work with the most recent versions.  I
> believe the problem is because some of the named templates have
> changed their names.
>
> Currently we distribute the 1.45 stylesheets because they are old and
> distributions do not include them.  This stems from a decision we made
> a while back to not always update our customizations with every
> release of your stylesheets.  Rather we would just include the
> specific version we wanted to support.  We felt that updating the
> customizations for every release of your stylesheets would be like
> chasing a moving target which might or might not break the
> customizations.  Lately there has been some talk about seeing if you
> would create a stable API which will guarantee future releases of your
> stylesheets will not break our customizations.  If you are willing to
> do this it would be great!
>
> Below is a list of all the named templates our customizations call.
> It includes the filename and the name of the template.
>
> html/admon.xsl:admon.graphic.width
> html/admon.xsl:admon.graphic
> html/html.xsl:anchor
> html/inline.xsl:inline.boldmonoseq
> common/common.xsl:person.name
> common/l10n.xsl:gentext
> common/l10n.xsl:dingbat
> common/common.xsl:copyright.years
> common/l10n.xsl:gentext.space
> html/inline.xsl:inline.boldseq
> html/inline.xsl:number.rtf.lines
> html/chunk.xsl:href.target
> html/component.xsl:component.title
> html/titlepage.templates.xsl:book.titlepage.before.recto
> html/titlepage.templates.xsl:book.titlepage.recto
> html/titlepage.templates.xsl:book.titlepage.before.verso
> html/titlepage.templates.xsl:book.titlepage.verso
> html/titlepage.templates.xsl:book.titlepage.separator
> html/titlepage.templates.xsl:article.titlepage.before.recto
> html/titlepage.templates.xsl:article.titlepage.recto
> html/titlepage.templates.xsl:article.titlepage.before.verso
> html/titlepage.templates.xsl:article.titlpage.verso
> html/titlepage.templates.xsl:article.titlepage.separator
> html/inline.xsl:inline.monoseq
> common/common.xsl:mediaobject.filename
> common/common.xsl:select.mediaobject
> common/l10n.xsl:gentext.template
> html/autotoc.xsl:component.toc
> html/autotoc.xsl:division.toc
> html/titlepage.templates.xsl:book.titlepage
>
> I belive the best solution would be to define a list of named
> templates whose variables and global behavior will not change in
> future versions.  This would be the DocBook XSL "API" and will only
> change for major versions of the stylesheets.  If you wished to add
> features to these templates or to change them you would add an
> "experimental" parameter which would turn on these features/changes.
> I think all new named templates should also be controlled by an
> "experimental" parameter which include the new named templates.  This
> way you can have a stable set of stylesheets while at the same time
> allow people to use the latest developmental changes in the stylesheets.
>
> I am glad you are considering a stable "API" for the DocBook XSL
> stylesheets.
>
> Eric Baudais
>
>
> --- End Message ---