5 fundamentals of DITA

Hi Folks

Here is my further on to comment made in the meeting about the 5 fundamentals of DITA.

I think knowing what they are helps us know the core terminology we need.

Although I like the term information network and that may give us something to grow into, I think we should stick to the more pedestrian limited core terms we need to describe the fundamentals and other detail around them.

I am sure many in the group could provide a better list – what here you haveit.

The current specification notes many of these in its introductory material.

Assuming you know what XML is and have a reasonable basic knowledge of HTML and you have some background in technical writing.

The fundamentals of DITA are:

1. It is based on XML

2. It is an extensible framework which includes some base document types but it is not limited to these base types.

3. It has two kinds of resources; firstly a set of map resources which provide a context for and structure of a publication, and secondly, topic resources which provide the content of a publication.

4. DITA relies heavily on links used in maps and topics to primarily express the structure of and relationships between topics.

5. DITA has features such as conditional text processing, keys and transclusion that help in the management and organization of publications.

Did I miss anything big?

cheers

Jim

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