high level translation BP questions

Hi 
Dana,
 
Thanks 
for raising this issue.
 
We 
discussed this exact issue at length on the translation subcommittee, and 
concluded that if we only address the DITA-specific issues, the best practice 
documents would not be useful to our target readers. In fact, they would 
most likely be useless to the general public they're aimed at. Therefore, we 
ensured they cover everything a reader who is not yet knowledgeable in these 
translation aspects will benefit from the best practice documents. The fact that 
a large part of the information applies equally to other DTDs is a byproduct of 
DITA being an XML DTD. Our target audience are users who are possibly new to 
XML, most likely new to XML-based documentation, and definitely 
unfamiliar with the process of translating XML-based 
documentation.
 
Best Regards,
Gershon



From: Dana Spradley 
[mailto:]
Sent: Tuesday, November 21, 2006 
6:59 PM
To: 
Subject: [dita] high 
level translation BP questions


Okay, I've taken a look at both these translation 
best practices documents now, and I have a high level observation and related 
questions.

Both would seem to apply to any XML DTD for the most part, not 
DITA specifically - maybe 90% is generic, 10% DITA specific.

Do we really 
want to put out TC documents that apply so broadly? Or should we tighten them up 
to just discuss the peculiarities of DITA with respect to these 
issues?