Authoring DTDs

During our subcommittee call today we discussed the DITA lite initiative that Michael Priestly has been pursuing. I mentioned that I have put together a DITA authoring package that falls in between full DITA and DITA lite.

If any of you are interested in trying this authoring package out, it is available as DITA OT plug-in com.tagsmiths.authoring.dita on my gitHub site.

Here is an excerpt form the plug-in's readme file:

This DITA OT plug-in contains the Tagsmiths authoring DTDs. These

DTDs make heavy use of the DITA 1.2 constraints mechanism to

remove element choices from various document contexts. The DTDs

call in 32 constraints packages. simpleSectionConstraint.mod is an

example of one such constraint. When it is active, an author cannot

simply type text into a section. The author must first open a

paragraph. Consequently, the number of elements an author can

choose from in section has been reduced from 63 to 32 because

inline-level elements are no longer available as child elements for

section. Rest assured that text and each of the excluded inline

elements can still be entered under ia paragraph in section.

This plugin has also refactored the shell DTDs from the DITA

technical communications package (concept, glossterm, reference,

task) so that the inclusion or exclusion of domain packages

(highlights, hazardstatement, etc) is controlled throught single

parameter settings in a file named CommonSettings.ent. Changes in

CommonSettings.ent propogate to each of the shell DTDs eliminating

the need configure each shell DTD separately. Each constraint

package can also be included or excluded from CommonSettings.ent.

Best Regards,

-- 
Bob Thomas
+1 720 201 8260

Skype: bob.thomas.colorado

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