DocBook: The Definitive Guide
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VariableList

Name

VariableList -- A list in which each entry is composed of a set of one or more terms and an associated description

Synopsis

Content Model

VariableList ::=
((Title,TitleAbbrev?)?,
 VarListEntry+)

Attributes

Common attributes

Name

Type

Default

TermLengthCDATANone

Tag Minimization

Both the start- and end-tags are required for this element.

Parameter Entities

%admon.mix;%bookcomponent.content;%component.mix;
%divcomponent.mix;%example.mix;%footnote.mix;
%glossdef.mix;%highlights.mix;%indexdivcomponent.mix;
%legalnotice.mix;%list.class;%para.mix;
%qandaset.mix;%refcomponent.mix;%sidebar.mix;
%tabentry.mix;%tbl.entry.mdl;%textobject.mix;

Description

A VariableList is a list consisting of Terms and their definitions or descriptions.

Processing expectations

Formatted as a displayed block.

There are many ways to deal with the problems presented in formatting a variable list with long Terms. DocBook does not mandate any particular presentation. The TermLength attribute may influence the presentation of Terms.

Parents

These elements contain VariableList: Answer, Appendix, Article, BiblioDiv, Bibliography, BlockQuote, Callout, Caption, Caution, Chapter, Colophon, Dedication, entry, Example, Footnote, Glossary, GlossDef, GlossDiv, Highlights, Important, Index, IndexDiv, InformalExample, LegalNotice, ListItem, MsgExplan, MsgText, Note, Para, PartIntro, Preface, Procedure, QandADiv, QandASet, Question, RefSect1, RefSect2, RefSect3, RefSynopsisDiv, Sect1, Sect2, Sect3, Sect4, Sect5, Section, SetIndex, Sidebar, SimpleSect, Step, TextObject, Tip, Warning.

Children

The following elements occur in VariableList: Title, TitleAbbrev, VarListEntry.

In some contexts, the following elements are allowed anywhere: BeginPage, IndexTerm.

Attributes

TermLength

TermLength indicates a length beyond which the presentation engine may consider the Term(s) too long and select an alternate presentation of the Term(s) and/or, the associated ListItem.

See Also

CalloutList, ItemizedList, ListItem, OrderedList, SegmentedList, SimpleList

Examples

<!DOCTYPE variablelist PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V3.1//EN">
<variablelist><title>Font Filename Extensions</title>
<varlistentry><term><filename>TTF</filename></term>
<listitem>
<para>
TrueType fonts.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term><filename>PFA</filename></term>
              <term><filename>PFB</filename></term>
<listitem>
<para>
PostScript fonts.  <filename>PFA</filename> files are common on 
<acronym>UNIX</acronym> systems, <filename>PFB</filename> files
are more common on Windows systems.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>

Font Filename Extensions

TTF

TrueType fonts.

PFA, PFB

PostScript fonts. PFA files are common on UNIX systems, PFB files are more common on Windows systems.

For additional examples, see also RefEntry.

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