Re: Need to have a conversation with you about how the DITA TC packages its specification

[Chet Ensign <chet.ensign@oasis-open.org>]

Hi Kristen -

Well, aside from "we'll figure out how to make this work" let me
puzzle on it a bit. Maybe talk tomorrow sometime?

/chet

On Tue, Sep 11, 2012 at 1:03 PM, Kristen James Eberlein
<kris@eberleinconsulting.com> wrote:
> Hi, Chet.
>
> I want to talk with you about how the DITA TC approves and packages its
> specification. I mentioned this briefly last time we talked.
>
> For DITA 1.2, we approved and distributed one specification. You can
> consider it the "all" version; it contained base, technical content, and
> learning and training material. That made it large and weighty and made DITA
> 1.2 seem too complex for some users. The size of the specification
> documentation jumped from 593 to 1236 PDF pages.
>
> For DITA 1.3, we want to approve and distribute an "all" version -- but we
> also want to package and distribute subsets of it. We think that these
> subsets are what most end users will want to download and use.
>
> Thoughts about this?
>
> We would of course single-source content into the various packages. Ideally
> we would just send the "all" package through the formal approval process.
> Otherwise, we will have a huge number of deliverables for review ... For
> example, let's say five packages (base, technical content, learning &
> training, semiconductor, TBD) x five output formats (XHTML, PDF, CHM, ePub,
> DITA source) = 25 deliverables -- this might take up all of your time as TC
> admin! And honestly, be impossible for us to easily cope with also.
>
> The previous TC admin, Mary McRae, had difficulties with the fact that
> material would be "duplicated" in the various packages, for example:
>
> Base = Base
> Technical content = Base + Technical Content
> Learning & Training = Base + Technical Content + Learning & Training
>
> The reality is that this is how DITA is constructed. We built it in modules
> that can be aggregated, and this will only further continue as we produce
> DITA specializations geared at various industry-vertical segments, for
> example, the semiconductor industry (slated for inclusion in DITA 1.3).
>
> Thoughts?
>
> --
> Best,
>  Kris
>  Kristen James Eberlein
> Principal consultant, Eberlein Consulting
> Co-chair, OASIS DITA Technical Committee
> Charter member, OASIS DITA Adoption Committee
> www.eberleinconsulting.com
> +1 919 682-2290; kriseberlein (skype)
>



-- 

/chet
----------------
Chet Ensign
Director of Standards Development and TC Administration
OASIS: Advancing open standards for the information society
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