Re: [dita-adoption] Comprehensive Feature List For DITA 1.2

[Eliot Kimber <ekimber@rsicms.com>]

This is a difficult comparison to do meaningfully because there's a lot of
apples to oranges comparisons.

A key difference, of course, is maps. Some DocBook folks will claim that
using XInclude gives you the equivalent of maps.

This is not true, as XInclude is functionally equivalent to using a parsed
entity reference, which <topicref> is a true hyperlink that separates the
parsing of the referenced content from the processing of the composite
document.

Likewise, XInclude is completely without constraints--you can use XInclude
to reference any element in any context. This means that you can't impose
the types of constraints that both maps and conref enable.

XInclude vs. topicref/conref, plus specialization, are the two big
distinguishers between DITA and DocBook.

There is also DocBook's support for indirect addressing, which is not as
completely baked as DITA's key/keyref facility.

By the same token, any argument along the lines of "DocBook has markup for X
and DITA doesn't" is pretty weak since through specialization one can add
pretty much any vocabulary you want to DITA (although it may not be
structurally identical to the non-DITA vocabulary you're trying to replace).

Cheers,

Eliot

On 8/23/13 9:58 AM, "Stan Doherty" <stan@modularwriting.com> wrote:

> Hi all --
> 
> I am involved in one of those DocBook-to-DITA migration proposals. A recent
> twist in the project involves my developing a comprehensive list of
> out-of-the-box (OOTB) DITA 1.2 features against which the DocBook folks can
> check off:
> __ Yes, DocBook does this too OOTB
> __ No, DocBook does not support this OOTB
> __ Maybe, I'll need to get back to you
> I'm OK with collating my own list of features from the DITA 1.2 spec and from
> the many "DITA benefits" presentations that I have collected through the
> years. I'd be glad to pass it along to you when I am done (if I am every
> done).
> 
> Before preforming that task, I figured that I'd ping  you fine folks to ask
> whether you have had opportunity to build such a list or subsets of it.
> 
> Stan Doherty
> DITA TC
> MathWorks Inc. 

-- 
Eliot Kimber
Senior Solutions Architect, RSI Content Solutions
"Bringing Strategy, Content, and Technology Together"
Main: 512.554.9368
www.rsicms.com
www.rsuitecms.com
Book: DITA For Practitioners, from XML Press,
http://xmlpress.net/publications/dita/practitioners-1/