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Subject: Re: [dita] The (many) drivers for Lightweight DITA


Title: Email signature standard

Dear DITA TC Committee Members,

As I have been suggesting this since 2008, I feel that I was way ahead of my time. Having worked on many enterprise component based publishing systems that pre-dated DITA it was obvious to me that DITA was, for many applications, overly complex and that this would add considerably to the costs of development and implementation. This is not a criticism of DITA: the TC has done great work in producing a spec that allows for complex publishing scenarios. Unfortunately, this comes at a huge cost regarding implementation. The analogy is where all a customer wants to buy is a simple sub compact automibile and we are trying to sell them a heavy lifting capacity mobile crane.

EDEN (Electronic documentation essential norm) is DITA slimmed down to the core removing the major impediments to simple implementation, but still a valid subset of DITA. The concept is based on 20 years of experience with tech doc publishing at various large enterprise companies. I know of many engineering companies that manage to author and publish complex workshop manuals with a very simplified XML component based publication system. The benefits of a DITA EDEN subset are that it is still valid DITA and and all existing DITA tools will work with it, and most important of all it would be an Open Standard.

Please find attached my presentation from the CIDM DITA NA 2012 conference which lays out most of the principles required to implement a usable, cheap and simple DITA implementation.

Best Regards,

Andrzej Zydroń
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XTM International Ltd.

PO Box 2167, Gerrards Cross, SL9 8XF, UK

email: azydron@xtm-intl.com

Tel: +44 (0) 1753 480 479

Mob: +44 (0) 7966 477 181

skype: Zydron

www.xtm-intl.com

On 18/10/2016 23:18, Kristen James Eberlein wrote:

And a critical addition:

  • Expanding DITA into new markets: Web developments and ones that we don't know of yet
Best,
Kris

Kristen James Eberlein
Chair, OASIS DITA Technical Committee
Principal consultant, Eberlein Consulting
www.eberleinconsulting.com
+1 919 682-2290; kriseberlein (skype)

On 10/18/2016 5:57 PM, Kristen James Eberlein wrote:

We mentioned the following drivers on the DITA TC call today:

  • Desire for a subset of full DITA that is less complex, simpler to author, and cheaper/easier to build tools to support
  • Easier specialization
  • Tooling to make easier specialization possible
  • Ability to have HTML and Markdown versions to enable contribution from authors who want to author in that format
  • Commitment to interoperability; Lightweight DITA must be able to be absorbed by full DITA. (The reverse is not the case.)
  • Current plans for Lightweight DITA to have elements and attributes that are not available in DITA 1.3, such as <video>, <audio>, @specmodel and more
Am I missing any of the key points that were raised? I think I am ...

I'd encourage DITA TC voting members to think about the following:
  • How would you rank these different drivers? Are some more important to you than others?
  • Do you think that Lightweight DITA might be delivered in phases? If so, what would you want to see first?
  • Do you think that some of these drivers affect each other? Or be in conflict with each other? If so, how can that be mitigated?

How can we best promote discussion on the DITA TC about Lightweight DITA and where the subcommittee is currently at?

  • Regular item on the agenda
  • Survey
  • Other thoughts?
For folks who were on today's call but silent, I'd be happy to have calls with you.

Cc'd to the Lightweight DITA subcommittee.

--
Best,
Kris

Kristen James Eberlein
Chair, OASIS DITA Technical Committee
Principal consultant, Eberlein Consulting
www.eberleinconsulting.com
+1 919 682-2290; kriseberlein (skype)

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Attachment: XTM DITA EDEN.pptx.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document



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