Prototypes of DITA 1.3 packaging

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

Hi, Chet.

I wanted to get back to you about the discussion that we had about packaging for DITA 1.3. I explained that the DITA TC wanted to issue six or seven versions of DITA for the 1.3 release, each with their own specification, DTDs, and XSDs.

You pointed me to the OASIS Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP) Version 1.0 specification at http://docs.oasis-open.org/amqp/core/v1.0/os/amqp-core-overview-v1.0-os.html#toc, as an example of a specification that is split into multiple parts.

I don't think that we could copy this structure literally, as the DITA 1.3 packages won't be sequential.

What we need is a page that would direct consumers of the DITA 1.3 specification to the package that is most appropriate to their needs -- then the page for the specific package can follow all of the standard OASIS rules for content and look and feel.

I've created two very rough mockups:

• Page that directs users to the packages (DITA1.3-spec-overview.html)
  
• A sample page for a package (DITA1.3-spec-technical-content.html)

Would this sort of arrangement work? The main point is that we need a "landing page" that will give the user the opportunity to select which package they want to use, but it wouldn't make sense to generate output -- PDF, CHM, source -- for that "landing page." We did a similar thing for DITA 1.1; see http://docs.oasis-open.org/dita/v1.1/overview/overview.html

--
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)

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