book-brainstorming-fr

Brainstorming Livre

Contributeurs

• Håkon Wium Lie
• Tantek Çelik
• Bert Bos

(Traduction en cours Christophe Ducamp)

Introduction

Compte tenu de l'analyse et de la recherche produite sur livre-exemples et livre-formats, cette page documente différentes idées et propositions pour un microformat book.

Contexte

HTML est un langage de balisage à objectif général utilisé pour les documents électroniques, essentiellement pour une lecture à l'écran.

Néanmoins, quelques contenus sont mieux adaptés à d'autres formes de présentation et pouvoir réutiliser le même contenu pour différents types de médias a été un objectif de design pour HTML et CSS.

Il a été montré possible d'utiliser HTML comme un format pour publier un livre. Dans le processus de publication, il a été utile d'utiliser un ensemble de noms de classes sur l'élément HTML pour classifier le contenu plus en profondeur. Les classes, avec leurs éléments structurels associés, servaient essentiellement de crochets pour la feuille de style associée. En particulier, les noms de classes ont aidé à séparer le contenu dans différentes sections d'un livre.

La principale motivation pour développer un microformat pour les livres est d'encourager la réutilisation du contenu pour différents types de médias. En offrant aux personnes un fichier échantillon de HTML et une feuille de style associé, HTML peut devenir un format incontestable à utiliser pour la production de livre. Ainsi, les noms de classes décrits dans un microformat livre sont originellement des crochets utilisés par les feuilles de style, et secondairement une sémantique lisible par la machine.

Sections d'un livre

The user interface of books is fairly standarized. There is typically a front cover that includes the title of the book and the name of the author(s). Inside the cover, one will find a table of contents, chapters, and index and so forth. The table below lists commonly used section types.

Section type	Description
frontcover	The front cover
halftitlepage	The halftitle page is simple with only the title of the book, and perhaps the name of the authors
titlepage	The title page contains (at least) the book title, the name of the author and the name of the publisher
imprint	The imprint page typically starts with a copyright statement and also contains information about where the book is printed, its ISBN number etc.
dedication	The dedication page is where you find "for mom"
inspiration	Many books contain inspirational quotes by other authors
foreword	Many books contain a foreword written by someone other than the authors
preface	The preface is written by the authors and often contains an acknowledgement of other contributors
toc	Table of Contents
lot	List of Tables
lof	List of Figures
chapter	The content itself content is typically organized in numbered chapters.
uchapter	Many books contain unnumbered chapters (e.g., an introduction or an overview of the chapters) thar are formatted similar to chapters, except for the numbering
part	Some books organize sets of chapters into parts
afterword	An additional, often unnumbered chapter at the end of the book
references	References from the text of the book are often listed in a separate section
appendix	Additional information can be organized into appendices
bibliography	The bibliography lists other books and sources for further reading
glossary	The glossary defines terms used in the book
index	The index is a list of keyword with page references
colophon	The colophon page contains information about the production of the book
promotion	Promotional material from the publisher, e.g., a list of other titles in the same series
backcover	The back cover

Dans boom, les noms de section sont utilisés comme des noms de classe sur l'élément <div> :

<div class="halftitlepage"><h1>Title</h1></div>

Not all books has all sections. A typical novel will have instances of around 10 sections. (My copy of Robert M. Pirsig's "Zen and the art of Motorcycle maintenance" uses these sections: frontcover, inspiration, praise, promotion, titlepage, imprint, preface, inspiration, part, chapter, afterword.) Non-fiction books often use more sections. (My randomly chosen title from O'Reilly uses 16 sections: frontcover, halftitlepage, titlepage, imprint, toc, lof, foreword, preface, part, chapter, appendix, index, bio, colophon, promotion, backcover.)

Est-ce qu'il y beaucoup trops de types section ?

It may be argued that the list of possible section types is too long for a "microformat". While one should always strive for simplicity, a few things should be kept in mind:

• the section names only affect on attribute on one element (namely, the class attribute on the div element)

• publishing is an established industry and paper-based books are not likely to change. As such, the format describes something that already exists.

Nontheless, some of the proposed sections could be combined. for example, the forewords and the preface are often formatted in the same manner and there is no need to distinguish between the two in the style sheet. Another similar example is the list of tables and the list of figures. And having a colophon isn't that common, is it? However, all the proposed section types are in common use and the cost of listing one more type is small compared to the extra cost of differentiating between sections through other means than standardized class names.

Y'a t'il assez de sections?

The list of possible section types is seemingly endless. For example, one could have a separate "acknowledgements" section instead of using the "preface" section for this. Also, one could have different types of sections for different types of promotional material. The postcard, which is often included in books, is formatted very differently from the list of other books in the same series. Thus, having several promotional elements would make sense.

However, in the interest of simplicity it is important to keep the number of section types at a manageable level.

In the end, determining the list of section types for a microformat is a judgement call.

Autres fonctionnalités d'un livre

Sections types provide a vovabulary for classifying different parts, pages, of a book. Book authors will also need to classify smaller elements, e.g.:

• sidenotes
• footnotes
• different kinds of tables: small, multi-page ...
• table captions

HTML has defined the semantics of table captions through the "caption" element. Alas, the quality of deployed browsers is variable and this makes it hard to use the "caption" element in pracice. The boom microformat proposes class names for this to go around widely deployed bugs.

Comparaison avec DocBook

DocBook docbook is an SGML/XML vocabulary which is been developed for "books and papers about computer hardware and software", but it can also be used for other kinds of books. DocBook is a complex specification; it contains around 400 different elements. Some of DocBook's elements are similar to the section types in the table above:

Section type	DocBook element
frontcover	not defined,
halftitlepage	not defined
titlepage	not defined
imprint	not defined
dedication	dedication
inspiration	not defined
foreword	not defined, "preface" is recommended
preface	preface
toc	toc
lot	lot
lof	not defined, "lot" is recommended
chapter	chapter
uchapter	Many books contain unnumbered chapters, e.g., an introduction, that are formatted similar to chapters.
part	part
afterword	not defined
references	reference (not the singular form)
appendix	appendix
bibliography	bibliography
glossary	glossary
index	index
colophon	colophon
promotion	not defined
backcover	not defined

Although DocBook doesn't have elements for all section types, it is still possible for these sections to appear in the resuliting publication. For example, an XSLT processor can add a title page in the printed output based on information in DocBook's "author" element.

This underlines a difference between HTML and some other SGML/XML formats: in HTML, content is presented roughly in the same order as it appears in the structure. Other formats, e.g. DocBook, often require a transformation stage where content is moved from abstract elements (e.g., "info") to more concrete elements (e.g., the front and back covers).

HTML does not have the more abstract elements (although "meta" could possibly be used) and subclassing having a series of subclassed "div" elements in the order of presentation is therefore a pragmatic approach.

Propositions

• boom - the Book Microformat

Voir aussi

• livre-exemples
• livre-formats