Re: [VCDImager Bugs/Devel] some XML/DTD questions

[Herbert Valerio Riedel]

well, here a full response...

the xml version can now do almost everything the cli/vcdimager version
could... so I'm starting with adding new stuff...
fyi, I'm just starting to define the api interface to libvcd for pbc...
based partly on your "hack" as you call it... :-)

will check it in in a few hours... if anyone cares, I'm usually on
#IRCnet, nickname 'hvr'... I can join any other irc network if needed...

On Tue, 8 May 2001, Matto Marjanovic wrote:
>  o Why does the 'selection' element require an IDREF attribute?
>     (I can't imagine what it is even referencing.)
actually that was just a first sketch, I've already removed it, and
replaced by a element... (it would have referenced the play item to use
for that selection screen...)

>  o The 'selection' element should have one optional 'item' child,
>     not many.  (i.e. item?, not item*)
I've clarified that one too...

now it reads like:

    <selection id="menu-sel">
      <bsn>1</bsn>
      <default ref="all-plist" />
      <play-item ref="menu" />
      <select ref="entry1" />
      <select ref="entry2" />
      <select ref="entry3" />
      <select ref="entry4" />
      <select ref="entry5" />
      <select ref="entry6" />
    </selection>

>  o What about numeric events for 'selection'?  That's missing altogether.
>     Something along the lines of:
>
>      <!ELEMENT numeric EMPTY>
>      <!ATTLIST numeric
>        ref      IDREF     #REQUIRED
>        num      CDATA     #REQUIRED
>      >
it's missing, because it's rather unusual to skip large portions of nums
for VCDs... if one really wants to do so, he can by adding ref'less
<select> items... but he really should not need to...

I designed the DTD/XML to be more or less close to the actual
involved structures / api interface...

>  o Ok, a more complicated question:  should 'bsn' be implicit or explicit.
>     I'm assuming (I should test this) that the BSN is the "number" for the
>     first entry in the list of numeric selections; thus, if someone presses
>     '5', the vcd player follows  numeric_selection[5-BSN].
correct,
except for multi default selection, where the BSN has to be fixed to 1

>    So, you could specify numeric selections in the conf file by:
>      a)  Give the BSN followed by a sequence of (unnumbered) list references.
>          If you want blanks/unassigned numbers, you need to somehow specify
>            a 'numeric' element with no reference.
...exactly :-)

>     OR
>      b)  Give a sequence of numbered list references, not necessarily in
>           any order.  The BSN is computed on the fly (from the minimum),
>           and the continuous sequence (possibly with blanks) is constructed.


>    (a) directly records what is in the selection list record on disk.
>    (b) does more to capture the semantic content of what it is supposed to do.

>    Opinions?
well, since the XML file is meant to be readable/editable by human users,
_but_ in the longterm the XML description is supposed to be created by
some GUI/CLI frontend, I'd rather go for (a) since it makes
implementation/error detection easier...

greetings,
-- 
Herbert Valerio Riedel      /     Finger address@hidden for GnuPG Public Key
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