accomodate -> accommodate.
From: Michael Priestley
[mailto:]
Sent: Tuesday, 2007 January 02
22:11
To:
Subject: [dita]
suggested update to topic "What are topics?"
Per today's TC call, I'm providing
a minimal rewrite of the "What are topics?" topic in the architectural spec.
Here's the text of the topic, with updates in italics (a change to the
shortdesc, and a new third paragraph):
>>>>
What are
topics?
-------------------------
A
topic is a unit of information with a title and some form of content,
short enough to be specific to a single subject or answer a single question,
but long enough to make sense on its own and be authored as a unit.
In DITA, a topic is the basic unit of
authoring and of reuse. A document may contain one topic or multiple topics,
and a document type may support authoring one or many kinds of topics. But
regardless of where they occur, all topics have the same basic structure and
capabilities. Books, PDF files, Websites, and help sets, for example, can all
be constructed from the same set of underlying topic content, although there
may be some topics that are unique to a particular deliverable, and the
organization of topics may differ to take advantage of the unique capabilities
of each delivery mechanism.
DITA topics can be as small as a title that organizes other
subtopics or links, or as large as a few pages or screens of content. Larger
units of content, such as complex reference documents or book chapters, can be
created by nesting topics, either directly in a single document, or indirectly
through references in a DITA map. Nested DITA topics can be used to accomodate
the migration of legacy non-topic-oriented content, as well as information
with specific authoring requirements, such as marketing material or API
reference documents.
Reference
information is inherently topic-oriented, since it requires information to be
modular and self-contained for the sake of retrievability.
Topic-oriented authoring for conceptual
and task information has its roots in Minimalism, an instructional design
technique first espoused by John Carroll. The minimalist approach to
information design focusses on identifying the smallest amount of instruction
that allows for the successful completion of a task, or that provides basic
knowledge of a concept. Readers have goals, and they want to achieve those
goals as quickly as possible. Generally, readers don't want to read
information just for the pleasure of reading. They are reading to learn or to
do something.
Some of the key
principles of Minimalism are:
- Support actions. Let people act as they learn, and let them
pursue the goals they want to accomplish.
- Document tasks, not tools or functions.
- Help readers anticipate and avoid errors.
- Let readers explore. They
don't need explained what they can discover for themselves.
While DITA's topic-oriented
approach has its roots in instructional design, the topic-based approach can
be useful for any information that has human readers and a consistent
structure.
>>>>
Michael Priestley
IBM DITA Architect
and Classification Schema PDT
Lead
http://dita.xml.org/blog/25
