Re: [dita] My increasing concerns about LwDITA and template-based specialization

[Carlos Evia <cevia@vt.edu>]

Dear Kris and all,

I don't have strong feelings about the specialization mechanism being a part of LwDITA. I am used to it because I have seen it as a component of our work in the subcommittee since day one. To be honest, the promise of simplified specialization is sweet, but I have previously expressed concern about the spaghetti topics that users could create following the template-based mechanism. We have seen a demo of those with the marketing draft, which probably is useful for its authors, but a little too complex to be called lightweight.

Don pointed out that users can create such spaghetti topic types now with DITA 1.x's specialization mechanism, and that is right... but those don't come with the "lightweight" label.

I defer defense of the specialization mechanism to Michael as its original designer. I support Michael's decision as his co-chair, but keep my concerns about the lightweight nature of topic types created under this specification/tool.

Best,

Carlos

-- 

Carlos Evia, Ph.D.

Director of Professional and Technical Writing

Associate Professor of Technical Communication

Department of English

Center for Human-Computer Interaction

Virginia Tech

Blacksburg, VA 24061-0112

(540)200-8201

On Thu, Jan 19, 2017 at 8:14 AM, Kristen James Eberlein <kris@eberleinconsulting.com> wrote:

I think we all would like to specialization easier to do. But ...

I'm not sure that adding new attributes and elements in the spec in order to drive tool development is an appropriate thing to do.

I think it would 100% appropriate if someone wants to build and sell an application, and include with the application directions on how to create an annotated XML file that can processed to get a monolithic DTD. Or have an Open Source project which produces a plug-in that oXygen will bundle with their application.

However, I truly don't see an argument for adding new elements and attributes to the specification in order to develop one-time artifacts (the templates) that can be fed into tooling to autogenerate DTDs

I'm going to need a whole lot more convincing. It just seems wrong.


--
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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