1. Introduction The GIMP documentation project is mainly working with docbook xml files to create the GIMP manual / online help. Since there are different approaches how to create and edit such files as well as different tools involved, there is a strong need for the xml files being well formated. Additionally there are a couple of technical reasons (diff, cvs) that suggest a general styleguide for the xml files. This is a recommendation for such a styleguide. Its mainly based on the styles that can be found in xml files that build the current documentation, as well as on the discussion on the gimp-doc mailing list. 2. XML styleguide by rules §1. General §1.1. All docbook files for the documentation need to be well formed and have to comply validation against http://www.docbook.org/xml/4.3/docbookx.dtd. §1.2. All docbook files use UTF-8 character encoding. §2. Length of lines §2.1. The length of line should not exceed 78 characters. Exceptions might be made for text that is technically not able to be wrapped (chinese text does rarely contain space characters, so it can't be wrapped without introducing unwanted whitespaces) and attributes of elements. §3. Elements and new lines §3.1. Element tagnames are written lowercase completely §3.2. All tags (opening and closing) are starting a new line. For exceptions see §3.3 §3.3. Elements listed in Appendix I (inline elements) do not have the opening and closing tags on new lines, as long as their content does not exceed 78 characters. §4. Element attributes §4.1. Element attributes are written completely lowercase §4.2. Element attributes values are enclosed in double quotes ( " ) §4.3. The languages encoded in the lang attributes appear in alphabetical order of the language codes §5. Indention §5.1. Space or tab characters can be used for indentation, but it is higly recommended not to mix space and tab character usage in one single xml file. §5.2. Indention width is two spaces (0x20). One tab (0x09) is equivalent to 8 spaces (0x20). §5.3. Indention is done for the content of all tags that start a new line 2 XML styleguide by example Example for §1 General Following the rules in §1 each xml file of the GIMP manual starts with: <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?> <!DOCTYPE abcd PUBLIC '-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.3//EN' 'http://www.docbook.org/xml/4.3/docbookx.dtd'> where abcd is the root element of the file (usually book, sect1 of sect2). Example for §2. Length of lines // to be done Example for §3. Elements and new lines // to be done Example for §4. Element attributes // to be done Example for §5. Indention // to be done Appendix I Inline elements <abbrev> <accel> <acronym> <action> <anchor> <application> <citation> <citerefentry> <citetitle> <classname> <command> <computeroutput> <constant> <database> <email> <emphasis> <envar> <errorcode> <errorname> <filename> <firstterm> <footnote> <forignphrase> <function> <guibutton> <guiicon> <guilabel> <guimenu> <guimenuitem> <guisubmenu> <glossterm> <hardware> <inlineequation> <inlinegraphic> <interface> <interfacedefinition> <keycap> <keycode> <keycombo> <keysym> <link> <literal> <markup> <medialabel> <menuchoice> <mousebutton> <msgtext> <olink> <option> <optional> <parameter> <phrase> <prompt> <property> <quote> <replacable> <returnvalue> <shortcut> <structfield> <structname> <subsrcipt> <superscript> <symbol> <systemitem> <token> <trademark> <type> <ulink> <userinput> <varname> <wordasword> <xref>