> However, all the benefits from AFs have to be realised by having an
> AF-aware processor (I differentiate parser from processor - an ESIS stream
> could be input into an AF-aware processor). My understanding is that:
> - there are no freely available AF processors
> - generic AF processors are beyond the ability (or at least the time) for
> a DPH to write from scratch
>
> Therefore AFs are only available to largish groups with time and/or
> money... This rules out the DPH.
Actually, none of these statements is true. I am working on a very
large project where people are using Omnimark and even ACL to work
with architectural forms. Further more, the SP-family of programs --
nsgmls, jade, sgmlnorm, etc. -- have a full-featured architectural
engine built right in.
In the simplest sort of architectural processing, you simply designate
an attribute name -- say, Biblio -- and take actions based on the
attribute's value for different element types. For example, with
<monograph Biblio="entry">...</monograph>
you would note that the value of the Biblio attribute is "entry" (or,
more generally, that "entry" is the architectural form of this
element) and process the contents accordingly. With
<byline Biblio="author">...</byline>
you would note that the architectural form is "author", and process
accordingly. In a different document type, you might have
<responsibility Biblio="author">...</responsibility>
However, since the value of the Biblio attribute is the same, you
should be able to process it with the same code.
A very easy way to set this up is to use #FIXED attributes declared in
the DTD:
<!ATTLIST monograph
Biblio CDATA #FIXED "entry">
<!ATTLIST byline
Biblio CDATA #FIXED "author">
That way, when an author includes
<byline>David Megginson</byline>
your software will see
<byline Biblio="author">David Megginson</byline>
Of course, if you are doing DTD-less parsing (ick), you can specify
the architectural form attribute values explicitly on the elements, as
in the earlier examples.
All the best,
David
--
David Megginson ak117@freenet.carleton.ca
Microstar Software Ltd. dmeggins@microstar.com
http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/dmeggins/
xml-dev: A list for W3C XML Developers. To post, mailto:xml-dev@ic.ac.uk
Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/xml-dev/
To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message;
(un)subscribe xml-dev
To subscribe to the digests, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message;
subscribe xml-dev-digest
List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk)