Re: [toolbox] Extended Attributes

[Will R. <wi...@gu...>]

On 3 Jul 2005, at 7:15 AM, Maarten Sneep wrote:
> And for metadata:
>
> % \iffalse
> %<*metadata>
> %! pragma mark My marker.
> %</metadata>
> % \fi
>
> Is this a workable suggestion? Since dtx files are processed at  
> different levels, I think you get more room to play with and add  
> your own stuff. On the other hand, Most dtx files are also pure  
> ASCII, so the encoding is less important, and sectioning is already  
> rather clearly indicated (making markers less of an issue).

Well, personally I think that
    %! pragma mark
is very ugly, but as a technique to mark dtx files I think you're  
right that it works well. (Note also that fontspec.dtx is a unicode  
document for example.)

A mark that might be useful for editing DTX files might be
    %! TODO:
I don't think there's any point in surrounding the metadata with
   %<*metadata>
tags unless that information needs to be extracted from the dtx at  
some stage. And I can't really see why that would be...

(On a previous note:)

I honestly have no problem, for now, with implementing metadata in  
the same way as emacs: in a big comment block at the very end of the  
document. It would be easy to hide from the user, and is very portable.

On the other hand, if there are other standards that spring up for  
storing the encoding of the file in an extended attribute -- well, we  
may as well use that as well! (too many `well's)

I am more interested with the possibilities raised from a rich  
document interface, and I think WHERE the metadata is stored is less  
of an issue -- it can always be changed if a new method turns out to  
be better.