Structure/Schema - Custom or off the shelf?

[Rick Quatro]

Hi Michael,

Good points, well taken. Thanks.

Rick

>I agree with Rick's points. But there are situations where it might not
> be worth the effort digging deep in the available material for a
> so-called standard, when -- in the end -- the customized solution still
> needs non-standard modifications.
> 
> As an example: DocBook comes with many more elements than you will
> likely use and the available XSL transformations deal with almost all of
> them. During all your initial setup work and all maintenance steps you
> will somehow have to deal with a lot of stuff you never use.
> 
> I learned that the maintenance effort is somehow proportional to the
> number of elements and attributes in a DTD. So from my point of view it
> is a good idea to start with a DTD/Schema as simple as possible. If you
> add elements or attributes during your testing phase you do not
> invalidate existing documents.
> 
> A good example of such a minimalistic approach is the DocFrame
> environment created by Scriptorium Publ. IMO it is a perfect head-start
> for FrameMaker users.
> 
> http://scriptorium.com/docframe/
> 
> If you need/want to be compatible with some other structure later on,
> you can create an XSL stylesheet to take care of that compatibility.
> 
> - Michael