Refactoring HDITA with custom tags

[Carlos Evia <cevia@vt.edu>]

Apologies (in advance) but I won't make it to the 05/16 call. Continuing the conversation about refactoring HDITA, I wonder how much mixing of HTML5 custom tags (Don's proposal) and custom data attributes (Michael's original approach) we should keep. I have been experimenting with Don's approach to extend HTML5's native elements to mimic XDITA/DITA tags, and I really think we should explore that as HDITA's evolution path. It makes authoring much easier than having to remember the data attributes. 

I compare here both approaches with the proto-example included in the Technical Communication paper I wrote with Michael:

Current HDITA model (based on Michael's 2014 idea)

<article data-hd-class="task">

<h1>How to do something</h1>

  <p>Introduction to this specific task</p>

<section data-hd-class="task/context">

<p>Use only when ready</p>

</section>

<section data-hd-class="task/steps-informal">

<ol>

<li><p>Plan something</p></li>

<li><p>Do something</p></li>

<li><p>Evaluate something</p></li>

</ol>

</section>

<section data-hd-class="topic/example">

<p>Like this</p>

</section>

</article>

My aberrant take on Don's proposed use of custom tags: 

<article-task>

<h1>How to do something</h1>

<p>Introduction to this specific task</p>

<section-context>

<p>Use only when ready</p>

</section-context>

<section-steps>

<ol>

<li><p>Plan something</p></li>

<li><p>Do something</p></li>

<li><p>Evaluate something</p></li>

</ol>

</section-steps>

<section-example>

<p>Like this</p>

</section-example>

</article-task>

Is there a third way that combines both approaches? What would we gain? Right now, moving to custom tags will only break a) my former students' projects, and b) Jarno's HDITA plug-in (which was pretty much his experimental contribution to our DITA NA presentation this year).

If this is a good idea, we (I) can work on re-mapping HDITA and new examples.... and then we can move on to the headache of MarkDITA, MDITA or however we want to call the Markdown flavor of Lightweight DITA.

Comments?

--- 

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