cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Community Tip - You can change your system assigned username to something more personal in your community settings. X

No alpha sequentialList tag in Arbortext Editor?

nicholas.sever
1-Newbie

No alpha sequentialList tag in Arbortext Editor?

Is arbortext editor limited to either bulleted or numeric lists?

19 REPLIES 19

Hi Nicholas--



Not at all, it depends entirely on your doctype and/or your stylesheet.
For example, if you want all
    elements to use alphabetic labels
    instead of numeric ones, you can do that by changing the stylesheet. You
    could also add an <al> element to your doctype, analogous to
      but
      with alphabetic labels, again controlled by the stylesheet.



      --Clay





      Clay Helberg

      Senior Consultant

      TerraXML


No, not that I am aware of. The list would be determined by what you allow
in your DTD or schema and how you want it displayed through your style
sheets.



Lynn


The 'style' of a
    or
      list is usually set by the 'type' attribute.

      As an example, in the HTML doctype supplied with Arbortext Editor,
        types are (disc|square|circle) and
          types are (1|a|A|i|I).

          If you are able to make changes to the DTD and stylesheet you are using, you can define other list styles to suit your needs.

          David

          David S. Taylor

          Project Manager, Production and Marketing
          Codes and Evaluations | NRC Construction
          National Research Council Canada
          Building M-23A, Room 239 | 1200 Montreal Road | Ottawa, ON | K1A 0R6
          Telephone: +1.613.990.2731 | Fax: +1.613.952.4040
          David.S.Taylor@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca<">mailto:David.S.Taylor@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca>


Hi Nicholas


It's worth having a look at the outspec.dtd for the fosi - counter styles are listed there, so these are the counters you could use for your lists. However it is also possible to specify custom list such as ndash for example by simply using 'usetext' and adding a character before your listitem. Anything is possible with fosi it's just hard to achieve somethings ^^


Thanks


Marcin


example dash list:


<att>
<specval attname="list-type" attloc="list" attval="dash">
<charsubset>
<usetext source="!–!,@2pi" placemnt="before"></usetext>
</charsubset>
</att>


outspec counter styles:



initial NUMBER -- an integer -- #IMPLIED
style (arabic | romanuc | romanlc | alphauc |
alphalc | userdef | kanada | jaeum |
circled-decimal | katakana | katakana-iroha |
hiragana | hiragana-iroha | simp-chinese-informal |
cjk-earthly-branch | cjk-heavenly-stem |
hangul | hangul-consonant | thai |
arabic-indic | urdu ) #IMPLIED
specstyl CDATA -- a string -- #IMPLIED
seq (1 | 2) #IMPLIED
except CDATA -- a string -- #IMPLIED
enumid ID -- an ID -- #REQUIRED
padlen NUMBER -- an integer -- #IMPLIED>

A bit of history on the Outspec (output specification) list types. The FOSI
goes back to the early 90's as markup was really still evolving (who here
remembers SGML?). At one point the thought was both data AND style would be
included in the document instance. However as users began to foresee
different output styles this approach was quickly dropped.



However by this time various list styles had been identified and were
carried over to the OS. Typically these are not read and the numbering is
based on specific requirements for the output contained in requirements
documents. The embedding in the stylesheet approach makes for a more
consistent output.



The types of lists in the OS are a good example of different lists you can
put into your schema/DTD and thus style sheets. I would hesitate to make an
element for each list though, especially enumerated lists. Let the
stylesheet establish the list type based on where the list appears. Most
schema/DTD's I've worked with support three list types (one I really don't
consider a TRUE list). These are ordered or numbered lists, unordered or
random lists, and definition lists (I don't consider them a true list).



You could actually get by with one list element and set an attribute at the
list level to determine if the list is numbered or not. Then, again, let the
stylesheet do the numbering.



Another option that I have seen used is to use a 'label' attribute that
contains the string you want displayed (e.g., label="a", label="b" or
label="*", label="*"). For a random list, this may be okay, but a numbered
list requires either the author to enter the appropriate value or some kind
of post processing to populate the label attribute.



My approach is to make the authors job easier and the output consistent for
the users, so anything that will do that is what I tend to support and push.




Lynn


I'll take Lynn's question back a bit further and ask who here remembers (and worked in) GML? That likely means you've probably been at this since the early '90s.

To add to the comments about ordered lists...

If you are putting together a FOSI it is fairly straightforward to style a three level ordered list (e.g., 1.b.iii) so that the nesting of the lists determines the numbering style with no additional input by the author. This satisfies most ordered list styling needs.

I don't work with Styler but I expect it provides a similar capability.

As Lynn suggests, lists that vary from the normal ordered list styling can be named and styled separately. Examples are definition lists, variable lists, symbol lists... this would be up to the DTD designer.

David

David S. Taylor

Project Manager, Production and Marketing
Codes and Evaluations | NRC Construction
National Research Council Canada
Building M-23A, Room 239 | 1200 Montreal Road | Ottawa, ON | K1A 0R6
Telephone: +1.613.990.2731 | Fax: +1.613.952.4040
David.S.Taylor@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca<">mailto:David.S.Taylor@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca>


Hi Nicholas,

I have attached information about FOSI countersfrom my almost-finished book, Practical FOSI, including some examples of lists. Other excerpts can be found on my website atfosiexpert.com/Practical-fosi.html.


Good luck!

Suzanne Napoleon
www.FOSIexpert.com
"WYSIWYG is last-century technology!"

Looks like the fosiexpert site moved to a Lockheed permanently blocked address.

[cid:image003.jpg@01CDCD6A.AAE4EF10]

\ / Andy Esslinger LM Aero – Tech Order Data
______-/\-______ (817) 279-0442 1 Lockheed Blvd, MZ 4285
\_\/_/ (817) 777-3047 Fort Worth, TX 76108-3916

Andy,

Don’t feel the like the Lone Ranger. Boeing has the same block on it.


Gary Nadeau
Tech Lead - Data Support
Boeing Defense, Space & Security - St. Louis

If I recall correctly, GML was the IBM generalized markup language? Starting at Control Data in 1986, we devised our own GML (SGML was not yet an approved standard) and used it until the early 90s when we moved to SGML and "Adept" Editor/Publisher. Time for me to retire!

Dave

Andy, I sent you a separate email saying that I could access www.fosiexpert.com<">http://www.fosiexpert.com> through the Lockheed servers from here in Cape Canaveral, but looking at your screen shot, the address you show is also blocked from here, but I suspect that the words “…mail.yahoo.com…” are the cause, since Mother Lockheed doesn’t want anybody accessing web-based email or any email other than Lockheed email through the Lockheed internet.

I do believe that is right. Goldfarb was working for IBM and just carried
the GML concept one step further.

I didn't start with markup until 1989 (right after I retired from the Air
Force).

My first experience with Adept was with the AF CALS Program Office. We
bought a Unix box to run the first version or so of Adept.



Lynn


I don’t think it is a block by any one company. I clicked on the link and this is what I got from my home system.



Suzanne, me thinks you have a problem.





Lynn


It appears that you may be onto something there, Lynn. However, the “The page cannot be displayed” screen is different from Lockheed’s “Website Block List Request” screen. I still would not be surprised if the string “mail.yahoo.com” would not automatically trigger a knee-jerk blocking action from our network.

I think Ed has hit the nail squarely on the head with this one. Just copying the fosiexpert.com/Practical-fosi.html <">http://us.mg5.mail.yahoo.com/neo/fosiexpert.com/Practical-fosi.html> allows me to access the site with no problem.



Lynn


www.FOSIexpert.com/Practical-fosi.html should get you there. I think my mailer must have added some stuff. BTW: I added lists.pdf to the page.

Suzanne


Perhaps the problem is caused by the mail system decision to provide the attachment as a link instead of a regular attachment? Since it can’t link back to the original file, it links to copy on Yahoo’s servers.

David

I will admit to working with Script, GML, and BookMaster/Manager but I
categorically deny ever using punch cards. Well, except for taking notes
and making table footballs.


I hate to admit to it, but I took a class in FORTRAN way back when and we
had to use punch cards. One of the first 'programs' I saw for an old Zenith
Z-100 was one from the Air Force to 'emulate' the 80 column punch card.



I do believe we are off topic here a bit now, but I think we answered the
basic question a while back. 😄



Lynn


Top Tags