Conference vaxuum::document_ft

    The set of SDML identifier characters includes the following:

	    < > \

    Since these characters determine "word" boundaries, word movement
    and deletion produce unexpected results.  For example,

	<TAGTHIS><TAGTHAT>WORD 1\2\3\4\5\6\7\8\9\10\11\12\13\14\15

    are treated as only *2* words!

    -- Ward

    I've encountered several cases where double-EXPAND is required,
    probably because LSE V2 new placeholder features are not being used.
    For example, 

        table_setup 

    expands to 

        <TABLE_SETUP>({number}[\col-width]...) 

    where the second placeholder must be explicitly expanded: 

        <TABLE_SETUP>({number}\{number}[\col-width]...) 

    Instead, the initial expansion could be this: 

        <TABLE_SETUP>({number}\[col-width]...) 

    If this optional [col-width] placeholder is replaced with a number, it
    automatically duplicates with another "\".  Likewise, deleting the
    placeholder also deletes the preceding "\". 

    (Aside:  The [col-width] placeholder is actually required.) 

    It should be relatively easy to locate other examples of this
    unnecessary double-EXPANDing. 

    -- Ward

    The first few times I tried to use GOLD-Help to get help with language
    syntax, I got an error reporting that there was no help available for
    "[help-topic]". 

    I suspect what has happened here is that XLSE was used to create the
    LSE placeholder definitions and that some /HELP qualifier values were
    left specifying the XLSE [help-topic] optional placeholder. 

    Time to fire up XLSE again to find the remaining LSE placeholders.

    It would be wonderful to have real help topics.  (Beginning users can
    use a lot of help.)  A fallback is to just delete them and have LSE
    report that there is no help available.

    -- Ward

    XLSE's definition of the RUNOFF and LATEX languages include default
    wrapping of long streams of words, with a right margin of 75 (to leave
    a little editing space).

    I've found this simple default to be a great aid in entering a lot of
    text.

    I think that SDML should default to automatic wrapping.

    -- Ward

    I'm used to all LSE languages starting an empty buffer with a single
    placeholder which expands to a complete source file.  For example,
    LATEX (from XLSE) starts with this:

	[@module@]

    which EXPANDs to this:

	%[@software-copyright-statement@]
	%[@module-level-comments@]
	[@type_of_document@]
    
    The SDML support leaves out the first two placeholders.

    I could live without the copyright statement, but I really miss the
    model-level- comments.  That's where the purpose of the file and the
    modification history are documented.  This information seems just as
    relevant for DOCUMENT files as it is for other languages.  Including
    this section in the default template would encourage good DOCUMENT
    "programming" style.

    Here's something for starters:    

	DEFINE PLACEHOLDER module-level-comments -
	    /LANGUAGE=sdml -
	    /DESCRIPTION="description of the module" -
	    /TYPE=NONTERMINAL

	    "<COMMENT>"
	    "++"
	    "  Facility:"
	    "    [text]"
	    "  "
	    "  Abstract:"
	    "    [text]"
	    "  "
	    "  Author:"
	    "    [text]"
	    "  "
	    "  Creation Date: [text]"
	    "  "
	    "  Modification History:"
	    "--"
	    "<ENDCOMMENT>"

	    END DEFINE

    -- Ward