Re: [Docutils-develop] [PATCH] Optionally disable docinfo section

[Adam C. <ad...@ch...>]

On Wed, 31 Jul 2002 19:58:40 -0400 David Goodger
<go...@us...> wrote:

> [Adam]
> >>> I have added an option to disable inclusion of the docinfo section
> >>> in the generated documents.
> 
> [David]
> >> What's the motivation?
> 
> [Adam]
> > The reason is mostly esthetic: while bibliographic information is
> > normally displayed when the document is used standalone and
> > especially when it is in printed (or equivalent, like ebook)
> > form. However, with online content you don't normally do this, but
> > have that information hidden or put somewhere else. I'm working on a
> > website were a lot of documentation is presented, and IMHO the
> > bibliographic information is irrelevant there.
> 
> Do the documents you're processing have to include bibliographic
> fields in their source?  If you're using them just to keep track of
> details for writing/editing purposes, how about putting that
> information in comments?

That will not work, since the point is that I want the bibliographic fields
not display only for *some* output formats. The output files that are intended
to be standalone (for example PDF or simple HTML) should contain the fields,
but the files intended for tight integration into a website should not.    

So the bibliographic information needs to be there in the input; I just want
to disable it in some (one, actually) of the output formats. 

> > Actually, I'm not totally sure myself which is better in all
> > contextes, but I thought it would be a usefull option to have.
> 
> Doesn't feel right to me.  The html4css1.py HTML writer was never
> intended to be a total solution, just a basic example.  I don't want
> it to grow so many options, at least not right now.
> 
> Perhaps what you need is something more configurable?  Perhaps a
> derivative writer is what you need; see pep_html.py for an example
> subclassing the classes in the html4css1.py module.  Or a specialized
> reader that understands the context of your files and how they fit
> together.  If you want radically different HTML from what html4css1.py
> gives you, it may be time to start working on a templating system.

Actually, I *do* want radically different HTML than html4css1 gives me, but
for other reasons. :) [#] 

> > For example, you can already disable generator and time/datestamps,
> > which are also metadata.
> 
> But those are a different kind of metadata, generated *by* the
> processing system.  You have to explicitly ask for them.  They're not
> in the source document.

True. 
 
> BTW, what's Swedish for "dedication"?  (New bibliographic field needs
> translation.)

It's "dedikation". :) Actually, you can also use "tillägnan", but "dedikation"
is more common. I've added this to docutils/languages/sv.py.


.. [#] I will most probably starting on a HTML writer that only outputs pure  
     HTML 4.01 (transitional) documents, that don't require CSS to display    
   correctly [instead I will use tables for layout]. The reason for this 
       is that a large portion of the intended audience use browsers that     
  don't support CSS. 

       I'm also tinkering with the idea to write plaintext (no, this isn't as 
      silly as it would seem ;-)) and AmigaGuide writers.

---
Adam Chodorowski <ad...@ch...>

Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for you are crunchy and good
with ketchup.
    -- Aleister Crowley