While the DITA DTDs are messy and complex, I do find the way that the DITAOT XSLs process data (i.e. refering to @class attributes rather than element names) to be a lovely, elegant way of allowing fall-through generalization. To me, it makes just as much sense to abstract the XSL from the XML as it does to abstract content from presentation.
That said, it's a damn good thing that the XSLs are easy to work with, because they sure require a lot of work when you're used to the feature set offered by DocbookXSL.
> In terms of the cost of customization, I have found customizing the
> DocBook 4 DTD to be easier than customizing the DITA DTDs.
Talk about complex transforms: I've been using DITA recently, and the OT
stylesheets look pretty intimidating to me - and no 'DITA XSL The
Complete Guide' to help sort them out!
