John Ralls [mailto:[email protected]]<mailto:[mailto:[email protected]]> 
writes:


Tom,

What Frank is trying to tell you is that you should use XML comments rather 
than wiki markup in the code block so that others can help you with your 
validation problem. (Wiki markup gets turned off in code blocks anyway, as you 
see from the result.) It looks like a patch because, being a dev, Frank used 
patch notation as shorthand for what you should do differently.
[<<Tom>>: ] thanks for interpreting.  Nothing against Frank.  I am just too new 
to catch the short-hand.


He also apparently found tab characters in the code block. That might be an 
artifact of the wiki rather than anything you did overtly; if so, no problem. 
It might also be something that your editor does for you when indenting the 
text elements to look pretty. If so, that might create differences from the 
original which are whitespace only, not content, and make your diff larger. 
This is often an avoidable problem in code, but is probably not avoidable in 
text because if you add a sentence to a paragraph and then re-justify the 
paragraph it's going to affect every line after your inserted sentence anyway. 
(A diff program that "normalized" the XML before generating the diff would 
solve that problem. Those typically have their own formats, so everyone working 
with your changes would need to agree on which one.)
[<<Tom>>: ]  Since you did not mention the name of such a program that 
normalizes XML, I assume that GC developers have not adopted one as the 
standard.  It would be handy for those working with a lot of XML.  Let me know 
if I assume wrong.


Anyway, perhaps you could make a diff from your first attempt and put it in 
bugzilla. Then some of us with more XML experience can apply it in our own 
sandboxes and help you with the errors. Once they're fixed and other comments 
applied, you can replace the attachment to the bug. After everyone is happy, a 
dev will apply the final version of the patch and close the bug, and you start 
the process again with a new edit and a new bug.
[<<Tom>>: ]   I can work with that plan!


Keep the patches small at first. This helps you track down validation problems 
and makes writing the change memo easier. After you've had some practice at 
writing DocBook markup and change memos, you may want to submit larger patches 
-- or not. In general, lots of small revisions makes for better change history 
than a few large ones, especially if the large ones cover multiple topics.
[<<Tom>>: ]  Sounds like very good advice.  In fact, maybe the first small 
patch won't have the present xml  validation complaint!


Regards,
John Ralls
[<<Tom>>: ] I appreciate the extra effort you and Geert are putting in to 
keeping me afloat while my learning curve grows!  Thanks again.


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