[publican-list] [Bug 687894] rendering of steps inside stepalternatives

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https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=687894

Brian Forte <bforte at redhat.com> changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
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                 CC|                            |bforte at redhat.com

--- Comment #8 from Brian Forte <bforte at redhat.com> 2012-04-25 23:06:49 EDT ---
Meta thought: stepalternatives should be an authorial flag to re-consider the
procedure’s basic construction.

That aside, assuming stepalternatives are the best option in a given procedure,
having them delineated by a distinguishable mark (eg a letter) does make it
possible to reference the particular stepalternative elsewhere in the
procedure.† This is potentially more useful to a reader than undistinguishable
dingbats.


† This brings the meta thought above back into play however: if you’re
referencing earlier stepalternatives later in a procedure, my reflexive thought
is the entire procedure needs re-structuring.

The sample structure given in comment #1 above, for example, could be
re-structured thus to avoid stepalternatives:

<procedure
id="proc-Stopping_HTTP_on_Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux_5_and_6-Linux-RPM">
 <title>Stopping HTTP on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and 6</title>
  <para>
  Follow this procedure to stop <classname>httpd</classname>:
  </para>

   <step>
    <para>
     At the shell prompt, become the root user.
    </para>
   </step>

   <step>
    <para>
    Run the following <command>stop</command> command:
    </para>
   </step>
</procedure>

<procedure id="proc-Stopping_HTTP_on_Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux_4-Linux-RPM">
 <title>Stopping HTTP on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4</title>
  <para>
  Follow this procedure to stop <classname>httpd</classname>:
  </para>

   <step>
    <para>
     At the shell prompt, become the root user.
    </para>
   </step>

   <step>
    <para>
    Run the following <command>stop</command> command:
    </para>
   </step>
</procedure>

The above is longer but forks the reader’s attention before they begin
following any steps in the procedure at all. This reduces the likelihood of
error on the reader’s part considerably.

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