Promised rewrite

[Kristen James Eberlein <kris@eberleinconsulting.com>]

Some comments interspersed ... Please note the paragraph and list highlighted in blue. This is what we need to agree on, flesh out, and ensure that drive though the document,

2 Why Lightweight DITA?

LwDITA is a proposed specification for expressing simplified DITA documents in XML, HTML5, and Markdown.

The core goals of LwDITA are the following:

• Provide a simpler DITA experience
• Provide representations of LwDITA in XML, HTML5, and Markdown that enable individuals to author content in whatever representation is their preference
• Enable the growth of new tools and applications that support LwDITA

LwDITA offers the core features in the DITA standard:

• Semantic tagging
• Topic orientation
• Content reuse
• Conditional publishing
• Specialization

However, LwDITA deliberately limits itself to generic structures that are highly applicable across many industries. This results in a much smaller standard in terms of elements, attributes, and complexity.

This pragmatic design has benefits for both small and large projects, as well as new and existing DITA implementations. The learning curve for LwDITA will be shorter. Implementing LwDITA might involve less change management and so lower costs. The ability for engineers to author in Markdown, marketing writers in HTML5, and technical authors in DITA will enable collaboration across divisional silos.

Of course, LwDITA users who decide that they need a richer set of features and functionality for their content can easily transition to full DITA.

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Best,
Kris

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