RE: [dita] FrameMaker as DITA Publishing Engine

["Paul Prescod" <paul.prescod@blastradius.com>]

You're right! I transposed those two entries. Thanks for the feedback.
If you have further feedback, we can discuss it on this list:

https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/dita-ot-developer

Thanks again.

 Paul Prescod

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Patricia Gee-Best [mailto:Patricia.Gee-Best@Sun.COM] 
> Sent: Monday, January 02, 2006 6:33 AM
> To: Paul Prescod
> Cc: framemaker-dita@yahoogroups.com; 
> dita-users@yahoogroups.com; dita@lists.oasis-open.org; 
> dita-ot-developer@lists.sourceforge.net; 
> dita-ot-user@lists.sourceforge.net
> Subject: Re: [dita] FrameMaker as DITA Publishing Engine
> 
> Hi, Paul:
> 
> Thanks very much for this information.  I have one question, 
> where I think you have some information below reversed:
> 
>  * inline elements -> paragraph styles
> 
>    Shouldn't this be "character styles" instead?
> 
> 
>  * paragraph elements -> character styles
> 
>    Shouldn't this be  "paragraph styles" instead?
> 
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Pat Gee Best
> Sun Microsystems, Inc.
> Austin, Texas
> 
> 
> 
> 
> >Most follow-up discussion of this issue should happen on the 
> >dita-ot-developer list.
> >
> >https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/dita-ot-developer
> >
> >Goals
> >=====
> >
> >FrameMaker is a capable, relatively cheap, widely deployed 
> formatting 
> >engine. It is, of course, also an authoring application, but 
> there is a 
> >separate project designed to make it usable as a DITA editor.[1] We 
> >think that we can make more substantial progress in a much 
> shorter time 
> >treating FrameMaker as a publishing output and have already 
> >demonstrated this with a Proof of Concept demonstrated 
> during a Blast 
> >Radius XMetaL Webinar[2]. There are some loose ends to tie 
> up, but the 
> >overall technique is proven.
> >
> >[1] http://groups.yahoo.com/group/framemaker-dita/
> >[2] http://tinyurl.com/7voye
> >
> >The following DITA constructs should be mapped to appropriate 
> >FrameMaker
> >constructs:
> >
> > * inline elements -> paragraph styles
> >
> > * paragraph elements -> character styles
> >
> > * topic and section titles -> heading styles
> >
> > * topicref titles -> heading styles (optional)
> >
> > * CALS tables -> FM tables
> >
> > * various kinds of simple tables -> FM tables
> >
> > * DITA internal cross references -> FrameMaker cross references
> >
> > * DITA external cross references -> FrameMaker hyperlinks
> >
> > * DITA index entries -> FrameMaker index entries
> >
> > * DITA footnotes -> FrameMaker footnotes
> >
> > * DITA graphics -> FrameMaker graphics
> >
> > * xxx anything else? xxx
> >
> >The following DITA constructs should be normalized by the 
> DITA toolkit:
> > * conref processing
> > * topic merging
> > * defaulted attributes
> > * generalization
> > * DITA address resolution
> >
> >Whereever possible, the overall rules about how maps, topic 
> references, 
> >related links, cross references etc. are interpreted should 
> be shared 
> >between the XSL-FO and FrameMaker outputs. They will use a 
> single topic 
> >merging algorithm likely implemented in common code (topicmerge.xsl).
> >
> >There are some aspects that could arguably be handled in 
> either place.
> >There is still room for discussion on where to handle these:
> >
> > * table of contents generation
> >
> > * index generation (not index authoring, but generation from index
> >markers)
> >
> >High-level architecture
> >=======================
> >FrameMaker will be integrated into the DITA toolkit as an Ant target.
> >Consider the flowchart here[1]. After "topic merge" there 
> will be a new 
> >branch. Instead of "transform to xsl-fo", the  new branch will say 
> >"transform to FrameMaker-friendly DITA". This will be done 
> through an 
> >XSLT that transform to a proprietary variant of DITA. This 
> variant is 
> >designed to work around limitations of FrameMaker (e.g. cross 
> >references and tables). This proprietary format will also be a 
> >generalized form of DITA with a fixed set of element types 
> (FrameMaker 
> >requires EDDs to list all element types). Specialization information 
> >will be moved into attribute values so that they can be 
> acted on in the 
> >EDD. An very complete EDD, read-write rules file and FrameMaker 
> >template will be provided and can be customized by customers. The 
> >solution should not require any FrameMaker plugins and should be 
> >compatible with all 7.x versions of FrameMaker.
> >
> >[1]
> >http://dita-ot.sourceforge.net/SourceForgeFiles/doc/DITA-OTAr
> chitecture.
> >html
> >
> >Customization hooks
> >===================
> >
> >The simplest way to customize the solution is just to change the 
> >template in FrameMaker. Replace the master pages, the 
> character styles, 
> >paragraph styles etc. Alternately, more substantial changes 
> can be done 
> >by tweaking the EDD or read/write rules. You should also use 
> EDD tweaks 
> >if you want to use an existing template and style names with the 
> >solution. FrameMaker's complicated configuration 
> architecture cannot be 
> >simplified within the scope of this project.
> >
> >Limitations
> >===========
> >Due to limitations of FrameMaker, it is probably not possible to use 
> >the "outputclass" attribute to directly address character, 
> paragraph, 
> >table or cross reference styles. It will always be necessary to edit 
> >the EDD to recognize the outputclass attribute and map it to a style.
> >
> >FrameMaker cannot handle nested tables.
> >
> >Other limitations will be documented as they arise.
> >
> > Paul Prescod
> >  
> >
> 
> 
>