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Subject: Re: [dita] Feedback from Mary McRae: Template for namespace document


Regarding the namespace document, here is a link to the OASIS template for it:
http://docs.oasis-open.org/templates/namespace.html


Best,

Kris

Kristen James Eberlein
Principal consultant, Eberlein Consulting
Secretary, OASIS DITA Technical Committee
Charter member, OASIS DITA Adoption Committee
www.eberleinconsulting.com
+1 919 682-2290; keberlein (skype)




On 5/28/2010 11:01 AM, Don Day wrote:
4BFFDADA.4000500@bga.com" type="cite"> The request to remove shortdesc link previews strikes me as counterproductive for readers. I'm reminded of Paul Prescod's ever-so-useful reminder about why duplicating user-facing hints is goodness (http://www.stylusstudio.com/xsllist/199809/post60200.html):
    In a rendition, data should often be sorted according to some rule that
    will help human navigation....
    Transformations are the basis of all XML processing. I expect that within
    a few years all XML-processing applications will have transformation
    engines built in. Style application are just the start.

  
So this item, at least, is one I think we should push back on. The preview has been present on all DITA spec productions in the past, and it is a clear demonstration of the value of single-source maintenance of content that lends itself to affordances that come at great cost to spec formats that lack this proof-point of DITA's value.

Regarding the namespace document, would it be enough just to resurrect the discussions to which Eliot and others have referred and just dump a brief summary into the requested topic?
--
Don Day
Chair, OASIS DITA TC

Bruce Nevin (bnevin) wrote:
6D6F1AB5D0078540A309D4BACDCFA8E601A573A2@XMB-RCD-104.cisco.com" type="cite">
> departures from how we've done things previously and
> arguably counter-intuitive to DITA principles.
 
Insofar as it conflicts with 'DITA principles', the counter to this is that this spec should exemplify what it specifies and the recommendations of the Adoption TC. This is obviously not true of all OASIS standards, but clearly appropriate for a standard that is effective on documentation and is applied to the documentation of the standard itself. It is that recursive self-application that should exempt DITA from some across-the-board generalizations. Fortunately, we're not bedevilled with small minds in OASIS, so we should be able to avoid a foolish consistency. (That said, it applies equally to clinging to "how we've done things previously" without such warrant.)
 
    /B


From: Kristen James Eberlein [mailto:kris@eberleinconsulting.com]
Sent: Friday, May 28, 2010 10:04 AM
To: DITA TC
Subject: [dita] Feedback from Mary McRae

Hi, fellow TC members.

We got feedback from Mary McRae about the draft of the DITA 1.2 spec yesterday. I've added Mary's comments to a Wiki page, to make them easier to read -- and to make it easier for us to track our progress in fixing issues:

http://wiki.oasis-open.org/dita/CD01

If you browse through the page, you'll see that we are left with four main areas of work or negotiation:
  • Need for a namespace document
  • (PDF) Stylistic improvements, to better align it with OASIS templates (footers, styles for various levels of titles)
  • (PDF) Need to fix text overruns in tables
  • (XHTML) Mary has requested changes from how the DITA 1.0 and DITA 1.1 specs were issued:
    • Number all topics with section and subsection numbers
    • Remove link previews generated from <shortdesc> elements, to remove duplication
    • Ensure that all topics contain a link to the "Next" topic in the reading order
I've requested feedback from Mary about which issues need to addressed before we can issue the spec for public review. I sincerely hope that she will permit us to finish refining our PDF styling during the public review. However, the first and second changes requested to the XHTML output call for more serious reflection, as they are departures from how we've done things previously and arguably counter-intuitive to DITA principles.

Thoughts from other TC members?

The third XHTML item either already is effectively handled -- the URL at the bottom of each topic takes the reader back to the appropriate bookmark for the topic in the TOC -- or could be addressed by an override that IBM uses for their tutorial specialization.

Best,

Kris

Kristen James Eberlein
Principal consultant, Eberlein Consulting
Secretary, OASIS DITA Technical Committee
Charter member, OASIS DITA Adoption Committee
www.eberleinconsulting.com
+1 919 682-2290; keberlein (skype)





--
--
"Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?"
--T.S. Eliot



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