DITA Technical Committee Meeting Minutes: 19 October 2010

["Bruce Nevin (bnevin)" <bnevin@cisco.com>]

 

DITA Technical Committee Meeting Minutes: 19 October 2010
 
Chaired by Don Day <donday@bga.com>
Minutes recorded by Bruce Nevin <bnevin@cisco.com>
 
The DITA Technical Committee met on Tuesday, 19 October  2010 at 08:00am PT for 55 minutes.
 
8:00-8:05 Roll call
* Regrets: Gershon
Quorum was achieved

STANDING BUSINESS:

Approve minutes from previous business meeting:
* http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/dita/201010/msg00095.html (Nevin, amended version)
Approval moved by Don, seconded by Kris, approved by acclamation.

Subcommittee/liaison reports: 

Restart next week with OASIS DITA Adoption TC.

ACTION: Bruce: Contact Gershon or JoAnn to alert them of this.

Comments:

ACTION: Don: Archive this comments section now that DITA 1.2 is out of review, and remove this section from the agenda.

BUSINESS:

1. ITEM: Next steps for OASIS Ballot:
   o http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/dita/201010/msg00105.html (Eberlein, submission data)
   o Latest DTDs and Schemas:
   * http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/dita/201010/msg00098.html (Grosso)
   o Schema readiness:
   * http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/dita/201010/msg00112.html (Nitchie)

> We can move ahead if we wish, but it will be harder to correct minor bugs in XSDs later. Choice is between starting out with known XSD bugs vs. delay for another year. 
> Most bugs would probably only affect those who had implemented their own XSD resolver on the C side. No issues on the Java side. > Bugs seem limited to the learning and training modules. We can advise users of fixes through the Adoption TC.
> Don, Kris: the DTDs are normative, not the XSDs.

> In a poll of voting members attending, unanimous opinion is that we have no objection to proceeding with the release as is. In particular Chris Nitchie, who originally raised the issue, made a point of saying that he has no objection.

> In response to Paul’s concern about stale links in the past, Kris and Don assume responsibility maintaining updates to links on the wiki and the Committee public page.

> Kris believes we have nothing further to do to formally initate the ballot.

ACTION: Kris: Inform Mary that we are moving forward, that this minor detail does not delay release.

2. New ITEM: Finding descriptions of DITA attributes

o http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/dita/201010/msg00104.html (Yeo)
> Robert: scripts to pull the info out not difficult. 
> Su-Laine: Design issue: we have descriptions for sets of attributes, not individually as for elements.
> Don: Let’s be clear this is not a normative spec issue. Su-Laine: but we want to move it to the normative spec for 1.3. Don: this implicates the packaging issue. Robert: we want to avoid copies of information. Also, there are many attributes, this could bloat our page count.
> Don: Want to reuse what’s already there. Anything more could be vendor development documentation or Adoption TC documentation.

3. New ITEM: rubric for SC brainstorming
o http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/dita/201010/msg00097.html (Nevin)
> Don: Whatever we say here needs to be reflected in the charter. Should we review the charter language? 
> Michael: Need to make the status of subcommittee deliverables clear. Those artifacts need to be clearly labeled. Fine with language posted in email.
> Su-Laine: Distinguish work produced by SCs from work that is premature or out of date (wrong version). Both important to address. Robert: probably can’t do that with the same wording. Su-Laine: something like the cleanup templates on Wikipedia pages, but specific to the issue.
> Stan:  Need a place to park ideas or discoveries that come up that could be ideas for 1.3. Michael: just pass them to the TC. 
> Carry discussion forward on the email alias.

4. New ITEM: New OASIS templates for whitepapers and SC work
o http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/dita/201010/msg00118.html (McRae, Eberlein)
o http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/dita/201010/msg00119.html (McRae)
> Mary’s comment was not rejection of the material that Kris posted. No further discussion or action for the TC.

5. ITEM: Resume review of packaging survey (Buchholz and Hackos action)
o http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/dita/201010/msg00004.html (Buchholz)
> JoAnn in China, Tilo in Germany, he will contact her and coordinate next steps.

6. ITEM: TC discussion about post-1.2 packaging
o This might possibly be held until after the survey results are in—Don
> We will hold this until Gershon is able to participate in discussion.

7. New ITEM: DITA for Programmers SC?
o http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/dita/201010/msg00075.html (Anderson)
> Robert: At least one specialization for API documentation is in informal circulation. We could make at least the base information an official work product of the TC. There is some interest in participating in a subcommittee. Stan: Would the SC maintain and advance the specialization, or would it focus on use? Robert: Like the L&T specializations. Stan: maybe an adoption issue: how do you use the standard spec without specialization for these purposes? Doug: Should perhaps say Programming Languages, more specific than Programming. Michael: expand beyond API to e.g. systems programming. Stan: DITA supports conversion and automation to produce API docs. Michael: resources exist now for e.g. Java and C++. Stan: even cataloging those would be great. 
> Don: do we need to involve additional communities?  
> Robert demurs from leadership of the SC.
Action: Robert: Create a draft charter for the SC. 

8:50-8:55 Announcements/Opens
8:55 Adjourn