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Subject: RE: [dita] transitional text and conref with delta


Hi, JoAnn:

I'd agree that the structure of the topic can accomodate transitional text (which is maybe an argument not to invent new structures for the transitions).

I understand the issue to be how content creators can avoid compromising the reuse of standalone content while still decorating the content with context-specific transitions that give a sense of narrative flow.

Here follows an attempt at an example.

Let's say we have a useful standalone concept:

. <concept id="ajaxExplained">
. <title>AJAX explained</title>
. <abstract>
. <p><shortdesc>AJAX has restored a more interactive experience to web applications.</shortdesc>
. Prior to AJAX, the portlet approach ensured thin clients but often had a poor user experience.</p>
. </abstract>
. <conbody>
. ...
. </conbody>
. </concept>

Let's say we want to pull this standalone concept about "AJAX Explained" into a chapter of a book:

. <bookmap>
. ...
. <chapter href=""writingRichWebApplications.dita"> . <topicref href=""ajaxExplained.dita"/> . <topicref href=""dhtmlExplained.dita"/> . ...
. </chapter>
. ...
. </bookmap>

In this context, we want to insert and append contextual text to transition to the prior and following content, in effect creating a context-specific topic:

. <concept id="ajaxExplainedForRichWeb" conref="...">
. <title>... existing title ...</title>
. <abstract>
. <p>Before writing a Rich Web application, you should understand the role of AJAX in such applications.</p>
. ... the existing content of the abstract ...
. </abstract>
. <conbody>
. ... the existing content of the body ...
. <p>As the next section explains, the other important technology for Rich Web applications is Dynamic HTML.</p>
. </conbody>
. </concept>

If we can maintain the transitional text as a distinct, context-specific delta, we can still reuse the standalone concept in many other contexts (potentially with different transitional text in those contexts).

The before and after transitional text can be seen as special cases of context-specific tweaks. In the example, we might also decide to drop a paragraph with an xref into the body of the "AJAX Explained" concept to provide a forward reference to a discussion of Dojo support for AJAX later in the chapter. That forward reference shouldn't, however, show up when the "AJAX Explained" concept is reused in other contexts.

Of course, these overlays would require extra effort to maintain, so you'd only be willing to make that investment where flow is really necessary.

Another approach would be to put the transitional content into the "AJAX Explained" concept with a ForRichWeb condition so the transition can be filtered out in other contexts. That can turn into a maintenance nightmare if a topic gets a lot of reuse. Also, the transitional text for each context is easier to maintain close to the other stuff that's specific to the context.


Thanks,


Erik Hennum
ehennum@us.ibm.com


PS. Providing credit where due, the conref with delta proposal is from the mind of Priestley. I just want to use it.


Inactive hide details for "JoAnn Hackos" <joann.hackos@comtech-serv.com>"JoAnn Hackos" <joann.hackos@comtech-serv.com>


          "JoAnn Hackos" <joann.hackos@comtech-serv.com>

          05/23/2006 04:11 PM


To

Erik Hennum/Oakland/IBM@IBMUS, <dita@lists.oasis-open.org>

cc


Subject

RE: [dita] transitional text and conref with delta

Hi All,
Why is it not possible to include “transitional text” of the sort in these examples in a topic? In a task, the transition can be part of a post-requisite. In a concept, you can build a transition into the final paragraph. I would really like to see an example of someone’s intended transitional text and understand why it couldn’t be incorporated into the topic itself if indeed the topics need to be read in a sequence.

I think Erik’s proposal is quite useful, but not for this purpose.
JoAnn

JoAnn T. Hackos, PhD
President
Comtech Services, Inc.
710 Kipling Street, Suite 400
Denver, CO 80215
303-232-7586

joann.hackos@comtech-serv.com
joannhackos Skype

www.comtech-serv.com


From: Erik Hennum [mailto:ehennum@us.ibm.com]
Sent:
Tuesday, May 23, 2006 4:47 PM
To:
dita@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject:
[dita] transitional text and conref with delta

Hi, Esteemed Technical Committee:

As a followup to today's discussion, I'd like to add one more alternative to Robert's list of options for transitional text:

http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/dita/200605/msg00031.html

If DITA 1.2 introduces the feature of conref push or pull with delta:

http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/dita/download.php/15120/IssueNumber17e.html
http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/dita/download.php/15117/IssueNumber17b.html

a writer could insert or append transitional text to any topic.

This approach has several benefits:


It also addresses the concerns about the potential for inline transitions to mingle content into the context.

For those reasons, I'd suggest that we defer the transitional text issue, get DITA 1.1 out the door, and bear down on DITA 1.2 including conref with delta. If we discover that conref with delta doesn't solve the transitional text problem, we can always introduce a different solution. If conref with delta does work, we will have avoided creating legacy that has to be deprecated later.


Thanks,


Erik Hennum
ehennum@us.ibm.com

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