variablelist

variablelist — A list in which each entry is composed of a set of one or more terms and an associated description.

Synopsis

variablelist ::=

Sequence of:
- One of:
  - Sequence of:
    - Interleave of:
      - title?
      - titleabbrev?
    - info? (db.titleforbidden.info)
  - info (db.titleonly.info)
- Zero or more of:
  - empty
  - empty
  - revhistory
  - Admonition elements
    note
  - Formal elements
    example
    figure
    table (db.cals.table)
    table (db.html.table)
  - Graphic elements
    mediaobject
  - Informal elements
    informaltable (db.cals.informaltable)
    informaltable (db.html.informaltable)
  - List elements
    itemizedlist
    orderedlist
    variablelist
  - Paragraph elements
    para
  - Publishing elements
    blockquote
    epigraph
    sidebar
  - Verbatim elements
    literallayout
    programlisting
- One or more of:
  - varlistentry

Attributes

Common attributes and common linking attributes.

Additional attributes:

spacing (enumeration)
- “compact”
- “normal”
termlength

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 present a variable list. DocBook does not mandate any particular presentation. The termlength attribute may influence the presentation of terms. The termlength attribute is often specified as a number of characters, but other forms are possible. This is an interchange issue.

Attributes

Common attributes and common linking attributes.

spacing

Specifies (a hint about) the spacing of the content

Enumerated values:
“compact”	The spacing should be "compact".
“normal”	The spacing should be "normal".

termlength

Indicates a length beyond which the presentation system may consider a term too long and select an alternate presentation for that term, item, or list

Parents

These elements contain variablelist: abstract, appendix, article, bibliodiv, bibliography, blockquote, caption (db.caption), entry, example, figure, footnote, itemizedlist, legalnotice, listitem, note, orderedlist, revdescription, section, sidebar, td, textobject, th, variablelist.

Children

The following elements occur in variablelist: blockquote, epigraph, example, figure, info (db.titleforbidden.info), info (db.titleonly.info), informaltable (db.cals.informaltable), informaltable (db.html.informaltable), itemizedlist, literallayout, mediaobject, note, orderedlist, para, programlisting, revhistory, sidebar, table (db.cals.table), table (db.html.table), title, titleabbrev, variablelist, varlistentry.

Examples

 1 |<article xmlns='http://docbook.org/ns/docbook'>
   |  <title>Example variablelist</title>
   | 
   | <variablelist><title>Font Filename Extensions</title>
 5 |  <varlistentry>
   |    <term><filename>TTF</filename></term>
   |    <listitem>
   |      <para>TrueType fonts.</para>
   |    </listitem>
10 |  </varlistentry>
   |  <varlistentry>
   |    <term><filename>PFA</filename></term>
   |    <term><filename>PFB</filename></term>
   |    <listitem>
15 |      <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>
20 |    </listitem>
   |  </varlistentry>
   | </variablelist>
   | 
   |</article>

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.