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Subject: Groups - DITA TC Meeting Re: Splitting Base and Technical Content uploaded


Submitter's message
Minutes of OASIS DITA TC meeting about splitting base and technical content
Wednesday, 23 May 2018

Attendance: Bill Burns, Kris Eberlein, Maria Essig, Nancy Harrison, Scott Hudson, Chris Nitchie, Eric Siois, Dawn Stevens, Amber Swope, Bob Thomas

ACTION ITEMS:
1. Kris to ask Chris Nitchie to spin up a build in Titania
2. Kris to put a regular spot on the DITA TC agenda to talk about Tech Con
3. Robert to back out the base as a submodule of Tech Con

Kris: Purpose of this meeting is to drive work forward on splitting Tech Content from the base in DITA 2.0

Robert: Need to address grammar files and actual specifications ? how we handle build mechanics for specs?
Where will the base grammar files be?
How will handle shared attribute files?
Base content and technical content are currently in different repositories.
Right now, the technical content has the base as a submodule.
We need to use keys to refer to attribute definitions.

Nancy: The use if keys creates consistency and allows Tech Con to refer to the most current content

Robert: Shared attributes will show up as an appendix

Kris: GitHub set-up is important ? driven by the IA of the spec
Need to know how to deliver the spec

Bob: Having base as a submodule can lead to problems

Kris: How do we move work into this area along? We moved it in to the main TC so we can be clear about goals, intent, and progress.

Robert: The current organization of the spec is split into conceptual and language sections

Kris: I branched out the prototype ? maybe, as a precursor, we could do a build of that?

Dawn: Need to do the same with Learning & Training

Robert: Spec has a conceptual part ? a beginning intro/overview and a language spec ? the element definitions
Part zero is about DITA
Need a part zero for Tech Con

Kris: OASIS has standards/guidance for creating that

Robert: Attributes from the base belong in an appendix.
I reused section 3.11 from the present spec

Kris: Could we work on a new design for Tech Con and avoid looking at attributes temporarily to get traction on looking at other parts?

Bob: We can ?stub in? the attribute info later
Current element description section does make heavy reference to the attribute section ? could maintain references to 3.11 as an appendix using keys so any references resolve to the latest attribute versions

Kris: We could comment-out attributes.
Need to change every href for create keys.
Need to define the keys in the main spec.

Bob: I may have done some of that as an experiment

Kris: We could work on what?s currently in Git, divvy up topics, redo the organization, and create a build.
I can ask Chris Nitchie to do a Titania delivery.
I can add a regular item on the DITA TC agenda to talk about Tech Con.
What else do we need to reuse from the spec?

Bob: work out keys in main spec, such as abbreviated form
Specific links from tech comm to base spec, but link only one level into the base spec
Specialization from keyword links to original spec for keyword

Kris: Base spec will be published first, so links can be addressed by keys in the base spec
Don?t need base as a sub-module ? link to it instead

Robert: I can back out the base as a submodule of Tech Con ? otherwise we might try to link to it.

Kris: What branches are we going to use?
Do we have a defined master branch?

Bob: Since we have never published before, we may not have a master branch

Kris: Was the topic refactor branch pulled into the master?
We may want to start over
Suggest we back up the submodule and declare what branches we?re using.

Kris: Why are all of you on this call and what are you willing to do? Let?s go through the role call and find out:
NANCY: I helped develop Tech Con and it is a hugely important piece of DITA. I want to ensure this goes well so that people can use it. I am willing to devote time to make this happen ? such as converting links to keys. [Comment by several people in response ? the conversion of links to keys can be handled using search-and-replace.]
MARIA: I mainly want to learn because it is difficult to find ways to learn DITA details. I am willing to do repetitive work.
KRIS: I want this work to move forward, Tech Con is important and beautiful, but it hasn?t been touched in a long time. It is a mix of best practices and normative material ? want to make it more useful.
ROBERT: This interests me. I know all of the weaknesses and want to fix them.
ERIC: I want to help in any way I can. I have a special interest in Bookmap.
DAWN: All of my clients work with Tech Con and I want to see improvements. Plus, I need to do the same thing with Learning & Training. I am hesitant to commit to work on Tech Con because I will have to do the same work for L&T, but I can learn from the Tech Con work how to do the L&T work.
BOB: I want to see Tech Con not dependent on the overall DITA spec release cycle. I am also interested in seeing changes to troubleshooting.
BILL: I am interested in improving the model for Tech Con and in learning more.
SCOTT: Boeing in invested in Tech Con and I am committed to improving it and in making schemas more modular. Also interested in detaching the base and Tech Con release cycles so that updates can occur independently.
AMBER: I have more of a philosophical interest ? to understand what decoupling means, what flexibility it will enable. I have concerns because people think of Tech Con stuff as just DITA.

Nancy: Right, the general public doesn?t think of Tech Con as separate ? how do we handle that?

Bob: For many DITA users, it?s all or nothing ? DITA is 600 elements, which can turn off people who only want to use topic and map. How do we publish without increasing confusion?

Kris: We?ll have to publicize it and position it well.

Robert: We have to decide what is the role of the spec.

Kris; the primary audience for the spec isn?t users, it?s IAs and designers ? we need to keep the average user in mind.

Amber: The spec isn?t the place where you should go to learn about DITA.

Kris: We have to do a better job at educating and positioning the spec.

Nancy: What is the timing, when do we have to have separation? They will be released at different times.

Kris: We have two separate work products and two separate schedules. The base will have to be done first because Tech Con will reference it, but we should make the gap between the two as small as possible. I can ask OASIS for the work product ? what we will call it.

Robert: I will back out the submodule while retaining what we need.

Kris: Need to have one set of working practices for Tech Con and base. I will get a build artifact.
We will meet again on June 6th at noon EDT.

-- Maria Essig
Document Name: DITA TC Meeting Re: Splitting Base and Technical Content

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Submitter: Maria Essig
Group: OASIS Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) TC
Folder: Meeting Notes
Date submitted: 2018-06-06 08:00:48



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