Re: [dita-lightweight-dita] template approach for specialization

["Michael Priestley" <mpriestl@ca.ibm.com>]

Hi Birgit,

As others have said, there is no direct
way to get your specializations from a template-based approach today.

However, the template-based approach
comes with some assumptions, which hopefully we can reflect in the design
of your specializations.

1) no block domains (these actually
have only ever been allowed at phrase, attribute, or data element level
- this restriction predates the template mechanism)
2) specialization always happens within
a specialized topic (this is new with templates)
3) you can reuse specialized elements
across specializations by using conref in the template files, so you won't
miss block-level domains so much (this is new with the template mechanism,
but doesn't affect you since you're not reusing any elements from other
specializations anyway)

There is one very minor change that
would need to happen to make your specialization compatible with the template
based approach:

- add specialized topic/body elements
so that the doctype can be used directly for authoring

There are also some other comments we
have, which are not related to the template-based approach, but reflect
concerns about which element you chose as a base, the availability of attributes
in ancestor elements, etc.

For example, two of your list structures
are specialized from ul, but seem to be a more natural fit with dl; and
one of your list structures is specialized from fig, but seems a more natural
fit with ul. And there is an element with an href attribute, when its ancestor
element doesn't have an href attribute. We can talk through these in detail
in our meeting.

Michael Priestley, Senior Technical Staff Member (STSM)
Enterprise Content Technology Strategist
mpriestl@ca.ibm.com



From:      
 "Birgit Strackenbrock"
<birgit@xstructuring.eu>
To:      
 <dita-lightweight-dita@lists.oasis-open.org>
Cc:      
 "'Eva de Haas'"
<eva.de.haas@liones.nl>
Date:      
 08/24/2016 07:49 AM
Subject:    
   [dita-lightweight-dita]
template approach for specialization
Sent by:    
   <dita-lightweight-dita@lists.oasis-open.org>

---

Hi Michael,
At the last LW call Jan has presented the
LW marketing specialization we are working on. One comment/question was:
- We might not have used the correct specialization
mechanism. LW DITA supports the template-based specialization, we did it
the “old way”. 
And for sure, we didn’t used the template
approach.
Now, I have read again all mails about
the template approach and I thing I understand it more or less. I could
make a template like the one in http://markmail.org/message/pd4u5kfg44xp5x5cbut I am wondering how I can get/generate the DTD or better XSD from this.
Do I need a special tool and/or scripts?
And yes, I do wonder if the template approach
really is much easier than the “old way” as used in standard DITA. Maybe
an advantage is that the specialization will not become more complex than
the basic topic and elements.
Kind regards, Birgit

<www.xstructuring.eu>
<info@xstructuring.eu>