Simplified DITA authoring/schemas proposal for 13076

Also relates to:

        13051 providing a DITA starter set

Many authoring scenarios would benefit from
the structure that specialization provides, without requiring the full
flexibility of DITA's advanced capabilities. For example, occasional or
contributing authors have no room for the learning curve for every DITA
element and behavior, but would still benefit from guided authoring through
specialization, as well as a simplified reuse and metadata framework that
also makes their work available to other DITA authoring communities.

We can make it easier for authoring communities
to adapt DITA to their needs by:

Simplifying authoring:

·        creating
simplified authoring DTDs/schemas that limit flexibility, with strict nesting
rules and limited attributes and behaviors

·        providing
easily readable simplified DTDs/schemas that don’t expose full DITA

Simplifying specialization:

·        creating
the required simplified topic DTDs by assembling and sequencing a set of
common section-level components that can be easily shared between specializations

·        creating
the required simplified map DTDs by defining type-specific topicrefs that
can set the required types and sequences of the topics a map can point
to

·        creating
simple rules for others to follow when creating their own specializations
(topic or map based) or specialized components

By codifying standard approaches to simplified
authoring (markup nesting and attribute choices) we will make it easier
for editors to quickly support simple authoring scenarios with no or minimal
configuration.

By codifying standard approaches to build new specializations (of
maps or topics) or specialization components (at the section level, or
with phrase or attribute domains) we will make it easier  for architects
or even authors to quickly adapt DITA to new authoring scenarios.

By providing a starter library of simplified topic and map types, and
sharable components, we can provide immediate benefit to already known
simple authoring scenarios, and also provide a pattern for others to follow
when they create their own. 

Michael Priestley, Senior Technical Staff
Member (STSM)

Lead IBM DITA Architect 



http://dita.xml.org/blog/25