🚀 go-pugleaf

> Just consider that importing by reference exists to allow the referenced
> object to be modified elsewhere and then automatically included and
> updated when a book is generated. Under this concept, putting any form
> of cross reference in such a text inset is a contradiction of good
> practice in information engineering.

I disagree. As R. VanDyke explained, there may very well be a perfectly
valid reason for *internal* cross-refs within a text inset, for instance
providing hypertext links from a summary to a longer explanation.
"Any form of cross reference" is simply too sweeping.

> Cross references are a bit like GOTOs in programming - bad practice
> because they're difficult to maintain and lead to unmaintanable code.

A strange comparison. Maybe if you compare GOTOs with manually inserted
references that are *not* cross-refs and therefore not updated. I fail
to see how using cross-refs in itself results in maintenance problems.

> In addition, X-refs have an adverse effect on the usability of a written
> product so they should be used as sparingly as possible.

I agree, *if* the material is divided into chunks spread all over the
place, so that the reader is forced to flip pages to follow the text.
But no complex product can be described in a single, linear fashion
that suits all readers and circumstances. I'm sure you agree that
cross-refs between related parts can be both useful and difficult to
avoid. Otherwise, I'd like to see a software user guide of yours :-)

> I cannot agree that the issues you have raised are FrameMaker problems.

Well, if they're not, they should at least be described in the FM
documentation. It's pretty obvious people would expect links in an
inset to work, so if they don't and there's a good explanation for it,
it should be noted.


--
/Thomas Michanek, FrameMaker/UNIX/MIF expert
http://go.to/framers/