Re: [dita] A Few Questions from PCAS Development Staff Relating to DITA

Hi, Keith.

What is PCAS? Otherwise, see my answers below. I think #3 is a very good question that we should prepare to answer next Tuesday.

Best,
Kris

Kristen James Eberlein
Chair, OASIS DITA Technical Committee
OASIS Distinguished Contributor
Principal consultant, Eberlein Consulting LLC
www.eberleinconsulting.com
+1 919 622-1501; kriseberlein (skype)

On 6/22/2021 2:50 PM, Keith Schengili-Roberts wrote:

Hello there Kris (and everyone else):

I asked internally within PCAS as to whether anyone had questions relating to the DITA 2.0 webinar. Here's what I got back:

#1. It appears that DITA 2.0 is adding brand-new per-element specialization. If correct, then if I want to constrain note (no p in note so I can't get note/p/note) and I want to constrain p (to take out table or something), do I do this by constraining the elements individually, or some other way?

<kje>

DITA 2.0 is not adding "brand-new per-element specialization." I'm not sure what that would be ...

What DITA 2.0 does do is relax rules around specialization. You now can:

Create an attribute specialization and then select where it will be available. For example, you could specialize a new attribute and make it available only on certain table elements. In DITA 1.x, if you specialize an attribute, you have to make it available globally.
Create an element specialization and then select where it will be available. For example, you could create a specialization of and make it available ONLY within <section>. Contract this with DITA 1.x, where you have to make the element available wherever was allowed.

In the use case you provide, there is no change from DITA 1.x. You would do one of the following:

Create two constraints, one for note> and one for
Create a single contraint that redefined the content model for both and <note>. You can do this because both and <note> are defined in the same grammar module.

</kje>

#2. How do you envision automated updates will work in bookmap?

<kje>

What DITA 2.0 provides is simply a hook around which implementations CAN create processing for generating a list of updates in a bookmap, if the change-management domain (or another similar domain) is used. In DITA 2.0, map authors can insert the <amendments> element into <booklists>, which can serve as a trigger for custom processing to generate a list of updates.

Here is the use case that drove the TC to make this change to the content model of <booklists>: "DITA 1.3 introduced the release management domain, which enables authors to add change information to topics and maps. Some implementations developed plug-ins to harvest this information and generate a list of updates, but were stymied by the lack of a clear way to indicate in a bookmap that a list of updates should be generated."

So no magic button here, but implementations who developed plug-ins to generate list of updates now have clear markup to indicate that a list of updates should be generated.

</kje>

#3. For users who are already utilizing the copy-to attribute, what is the recommendation for implementations that have a reliance on this capability?

<kje>

What DITA 2.0 provides is new markup around <resource-id>. Processors, such as DITA-OT, will need to develop ways to work with the new markup. I would recommend that implementations who have a reliance on @copy-to get familiar with the changes to DITA-OT, and (ideally) get involved with the DITA-OT project to develop the code that will work with <resource-id> and be a replacement for @copy-to.

</kje>

Cheers!

Keith Schengili-Roberts |âSenior Content Strategist|âPrecision Content

Direct:â+1-416-526-6343 |âTZ: Eastern |âEmail:âkeith@precisioncontent.com| LinkedInâ|www.precisioncontent.com

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