Groups - DITA TC Meeting Minutes 17 December 2013 uploaded

[Richard Hamilton<hamilton@xmlpress.net>]

        Submitter's message
        Minutes of DITA Technical Committee meeting
December 17, 2013

8:00-8:05 PT Roll call

Regrets: Mark Myers, Nancy Harrison
STANDING BUSINESS:

Approve minutes from previous business meeting:
Seconded and approved

BUSINESS:

Voting members present and voting:
Anderson, Bissantz, Doherty, Eberlein, Hackos, Hamilton, Helfinstine, Kimber, Magliery, Nitchie, and Priestley

Roll call votes held on the following proposals:

13121: Reuse a structural specialization as a domain (Priestley; Reviewers: Robert Anderson, Kris Eberlein, Bob Thomas)
Seconded and accepted unanimously, no abstentions

13097: New troubleshooting topic (TechComm SC; Reviewers: Hackos, Dawn Stevens)
Second: Doherty
Accepted unanimously, no abstentions
 
13059a: Ability to filter within a branch of content (Anderson; Reviewers: Kris Eberlein, Eliot Kimber)
Second: Hackos
Accepted unanimously, no abstentions

13106: New base domain and specializations for question/answer interactions (Kimber for L & T SC; Reviewers: Hackos, Dawn Stevens)
Second: Priestly
Accepted unanimously, no abstentions

13060: Enhancement to

(Help SC; Reviewers: Scott Hudson, Deb Bissantz, Robert Anderson)
Second: Anderson
Accepted unanimously, no abstentions

13061: UA window definition (Help SC; Reviewers: Don Day, Robert Anderson)
Second: Kimber
Accepted unanimously, no abstentions

Ready for discussion:
13112: RelaxNG for DITA vocabulary (Kimber; Reviewers: Scott Hudson, Dick Hamilton)

Discussion:
Eliot described proposal and also introduced RelaxNG. Major points:
- RelaxNG is a more modern, and easier-to-use, schema language.
- RelaxNG can be converted to both DTD and XSD forms without manual intervention.
- File organization is direct mirror of DTD organization.
- RelaxNG form of the DITA schema contains additional metadata used for generating DTD and XSD form. This allows 100% automated generation.

Questions and Comments:
- Q: Processing instruction missing in code example. A: Noted and will be fixed.
- Q: Coding requirements are for whom? A: Anyone writing a shell, vocabulary, or constraint module.
- Q: Is the transform to generate DTD/XSD complete? A: Mostly complete, but work still needs to be done.
- Q: How confident are you (Eliot) that metadata currently contains everything needed? A: Very confident, but can't be 100% sure until transform is complete.
- Q: What is risk that there will be late changes that affect the specification? A: Can't be guaranteed there won't be, but still have two review cycles to finalize.
- Q: Will metadata schemas be part of the specification. A: Yes, part of the normative specification, but use is optional if people don't need to generate DTD or XSD for their specializations.
- Note: Kris: Significant risk if tools aren't completed in time or are not 100%.
- Q: Are RelaxNG schemas normative (by the proposal)? A: yes, which implies tools are required.
- Note: Need to set a deadline for tool. A: Eliot suggests end of January.
- Q: What language is the tool written in? A: XSLT 2.0.
- Note: Eliot: Also writing tool to generate contains and contained by tables.
- Q: How will tools be made available? A: Probably packaged both stand alone and as part of the DITA-OT (though it does not depend on anything in the DITA-OT).
- Q: Could it be part of the DITA distribution? A: Kris will check with Chet Ensign to see if this is allowable by OASIS.
- Note: Kimber and Hudson both note that DocBook has a well-defined place for tools of all kinds. May want to investigate doing something similar for DITA.

Kris: Proposes that we vote at next meeting with contingency that conversion tools must by built by the end of January 2014 and by the same date, the TC must resolve where the tools should reside.
Chris: Concern expressed about contingent vote; would rather have vote after tools are resolved. After discussion, it was agreed that it is better to have vote sooner rather than later.

ACTION: Move proposal to a vote at next meeting (January 7, 2014)
ACTION: Kris to check with Chet Ensign on whether tools could be either hosted by OASIS and/or be part of the specification

Meeting adjourned on the hour.

-- Mr. Richard Hamilton

Document Name: DITA TC Meeting Minutes 17 December 2013

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Description
Minutes from the December 17, 2013, meeting of the DITA TC
Download Latest Revision
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Submitter: Mr. Richard Hamilton
Group: OASIS Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) TC
Folder: Meeting Notes
Date submitted: 2013-12-17 11:13:47