Un-versioned URNs/public IDs with DITA 2.0

[Chris Nitchie <chris.nitchie@oberontech.com>]

In todayâs meeting and our discussion about nesting steps and removing sub-steps, it occurred to me that with all these breaking changes, we should probably stop providing un-versioned public IDs and URNs in DITA 2.0 (e.g. "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Task//EN"). Otherwise, DITA 2.0-compliant toolchains encountering a document with an unversioned public ID or schema reference will be unable to determine which grammar files to use to parse and validate. I suggest that all catalogs we provide with the grammar files include 2.0 as well as 2.x designations, but not unversioned designations. That way, an un-versioned identifier will refer to the 1.3 grammars, and a reference to 2.x can be used for the most-recent post-2.0 grammar files, retaining the flexibility while avoiding the ambiguity.

I don't think this probably rises to the level of a full DITA 2.0 proposal, but I wanted to bring it to the attention of the TC so it doesn't slip through the cracks.

Chris