Michael,
Do the DocBook kits mandate the use of a specific tool? From a brief look, they look relatively tool-agnostic, with templates and XSL-to-HTML and XSL-FO transformations (though there are XSLT extensions for both Saxon and Xalan, but it doesn’t mandate one over the other). In theory these could be use with any XSLT and/or XSL-FO processor. I think Paul’s objection, which I share, is that mandating use of an Open Toolkit plug-in implies that the TC and/or OASIS endorses that tool over others, which we really shouldn’t be doing.
This isn’t to say that the plug-in isn’t useful or shouldn’t be made available, just that I’m squeamish about any official endorsement.
Chris
From: Michael Priestley [mailto:mpriestl@ca.ibm.com]
Sent: Friday, January 14, 2011 11:33 AM
To: Grosso, Paul
Cc: DITA TC
Subject: RE: [dita] Providing a DITA OT plug-in for specs available to other OASIS users
Hi Paul,
DocBook has specific support for OASIS publications, hosted by OASIS here:
http://www.oasis-open.org/spectools/
The support includes templates, usage documentation, and stylesheets for HTML and PDF.
As a result, DocBook is a supported format for any TC who wishes to use it to document their standard. I want to see equivalent support for DITA.
Michael Priestley, Senior Technical Staff Member (STSM)
Lead IBM DITA Architect
mpriestl@ca.ibm.com
http://dita.xml.org/blog/25
From: | "Grosso, Paul" <pgrosso@ptc.com> |
To: | "DITA TC" <dita@lists.oasis-open.org> |
Date: | 01/14/2011 10:59 AM |
Subject: | RE: [dita] Providing a DITA OT plug-in for specs available to other OASIS users |
I'm not sure I quite understand "the bar for providing OASIS publication support." Perhaps there are things about which I am unfamiliar in this area.
The DocBook TC publishes the standard and schemas through OASIS. See http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=docbook#technical
The DocBook analogy to our dita.xml.org is docbook.org which is unaffiliated with OASIS.
The XSL stylesheets that can be used to compose DocBook documents and related "toolish" information are housed at http://docbook.sourceforge.net/.
paul
From: Michael Priestley [mailto:mpriestl@ca.ibm.com]
Sent: Friday, 2011 January 14 9:44
To: Grosso, Paul
Cc: DITA TC
Subject: RE: [dita] Providing a DITA OT plug-in for specs available to other OASIS users
My opinion is that we should duplicate whatever support and distribution mechanisms DocBook provides. They've set the bar for providing OASIS publication support.
Michael Priestley, Senior Technical Staff Member (STSM)
Lead IBM DITA Architect
mpriestl@ca.ibm.com
http://dita.xml.org/blog/25
From: | "Grosso, Paul" <pgrosso@ptc.com> |
To: | "DITA TC" <dita@lists.oasis-open.org> |
Date: | 01/14/2011 10:35 AM |
Subject: | RE: [dita] Providing a DITA OT plug-in for specs available to other OASIS users |
My opinion is that the DITA TC (1) should develop the standard and avoid aligning itself with any particular implementation and (2) has plenty of work to do on the standard and already has a track record for taking much longer than thought at first to get out the next version and so shouldn't spend time on tools.
So for several reasons I prefer choice #3 (which might also be the easiest given the OASIS process).
paul
From: Kristen Eberlein [mailto:keberlein@sdl.com]
Sent: Friday, 2011 January 14 6:25
To: DITA TC
Subject: [dita] Providing a DITA OT plug-in for specs available to other OASIS users
Robert has finished a first round of work on the plug-in (thanks, Robert!), and so I’ve started a conversation with Robin Cover about how best to make the plug-in available. Since it will need documentation providing information about how to set up the plug-in up and configure a bookmap to hold the requisite publication information, it does involve a TC work artifact, which would be the new non-standards work-track item – a committee note.
Here are what our options appear to be:
1. Apply to the TC Admin for requisite metadata, produce the document per whatever “template,” label the document as a working draft, and give it to the TC Admin who will make it available from http://docs.oasis-open.org/templates/
2. Apply to the TC Admin for requisite metadata, produce the document per whatever “template,” go through the formal review process to approve the document as a TC work product.
3. Make the plug-in and documentation available from another venue, for example, Sourceforge or dita.xml.org.
I think that the TC will need to consider the pros and cons of each approach and decide how it wants to move forward with this item.
I’ll send another e-mail to the list explaining the OASIS processes that the TC would need to follow for options 1 or 2.
Best regards,
Kris