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9 Elements reference

9.1 Minimal example

A minimal tbook file looks like this: 

     <?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
     <!DOCTYPE book
       PUBLIC "-//Torsten Bronger//DTD tbook 1.5.2//EN"
              "http://tbookdtd.sourceforge.net/tbook152.dtd">
     <book xml:lang="en-GB">
       <frontmatter>
         <title>A little book</title>
         <author>Torsten Bronger</author>
       </frontmatter>
     
       <mainmatter>
         <chapter>
           <heading>First Chapter</heading>
     
           <p>Small is beautiful.</p>
         </chapter>
       </mainmatter>
     </book>

9.2 Terms and symbols in the element reference

On the following pages, some special expressions are used in the “Possible Contents”. First I explain what they mean.

The term “inline element” denotes the following elements:

font manipulation: <em>, <visual>, <verb>,
mathematics: <m>, <math>, <ch>,
cross references: <cite>, <pageref>, <ref>, <vref>, <mathref>,
index: <ix>, <idx>, <indexsee>,
miscellaneous: <url>, <hspace>, <unit>, <relax>, <wrap>, <footnote>, <graphics>, <latex>.

The term “block element” denotes the following elements:

lists: <description>, <enumerate>, <itemize>,
mathematics: <math>, <dm>, <ch>,
quoted material: <quote>, <blockquote>, <verbatim>, <verse>,
miscellaneous: <p>, <multipar>, <tabular>, <latex>.

The term “figure/table” actually denotes the elements <figure> and <table>, but where they are allowed, the two “big block” elements <theorem> and <proof> are allowed, too.

Apart from that, in “Possible contents” the typical symbols of regular expression or EBNF are used:

+
at least one
?
one or none
*
arbitrary many, or none
|
or (not exclusively)
(...)
grouping; another of these symbols immediately after the group refers to the whole group
,
sequence; the order is significant

An example: The element <section> has the following “Possible contents”: 

heading, (block | float)*, subsection*

This means in human words: The contents of every <section> element must start with one <heading> element. This is followed by an arbitrary number (also zero) of elements belonging to the block or float category, in arbitrary order. After them may follow <subsection> elements, as many as you wish.

An online version of this element reference is available at
http://tbookdtd.sourceforge.net/dtd/.