SANITY CHECK: Documenting How to Build DITA 1.2 Spec Subsets

["Stan Doherty" <stan@modularwriting.com>]

Hi --

Before I start writing a topic documenting how our readers can build subsets of the DITA 1.2 spec for themselves, I wanted to do a quick sanity check on our assumptions and goals.

1. Distribution: DITA 1.2 sources will be downloadable from OASIS 
   as a .zip and/or .tar archive. 
   - In separate distributions, the DITA-OT and other tools providers 
     may choose to supplement the OASIS source archive with sets 
     of tool-specific build files, for example ant scripts for particular
     output formats.

2. Build environment: Readers should be able to use any DITA-1.2-compliant
   build environment to call our DITA 1.2 DITA maps from their build scripts
   or build UI and generate one or more output formats. 
   - CAVEAT: When we KNOW that attempting to build a certain DITA map
     requires special support tools or processing overhead, we should 
     inform readers of those requirements. Unless noted otherwise, our 
     DITA maps should load and build in general-purpose DITA-1.2-compliant
     environments.
   - TESTING: We should invite competent DITA users outside the TC to  
     build the spec subsets in a variety of build environments. 

3. Target subsets: We should document how our DITA maps support
   generating the following spec deliverables:
   a. DITA 1.2 Complete Spec
      - Pointer to Kris' doc
   b. DITA 1.2 Base Spec
      - Base architecture spec
      - Base language spec
      - Conformance
      - Appendices
   c. Technical Content Spec
      - TechCom architecture spec
      - TechCom language spec
        > Attributes
        > Element Quick Reference
   d. Learning and Training Spec
      - L&T architecture spec
      - L&T language spec
   e. DITA 1.2 Architecture Spec 
      - Base architecture spec
      - TechCom architecture spec
      - L&T architecture spec
      - Conformance
      - Appendices
   f. DITA 1.2 Language Spec
      - Base language spec
      - TechCom language spec
        > Attributes
        > Element Quick Reference
      - L&T language spec

Thanx,
Stan

Stan Doherty
Director, Technical Publications
Verivue Inc.
Westford MA
sdoherty@verivue.com