RE: [dita] Standard DITA processing instructions?

From
Ogden, Jeff <>
Date
2009-10-02T18:24:57+00:00
ID
Thread
RE: [dita] Standard DITA processing instructions?
I think the DITA TC could include discussion of “DITA
standard PIs” in the spec. 

 

I think having something standard for change tracking would be a
good thing, but I wonder if that might not be better done in a way that would
work for DITA and non-DITA document types.  And if you buy into that, the
question is what group would be a good one to work on it?  I guess it
could be a recommendation from the DITA TC that had wider application than just
DITA, but I can imagine that there may be some other group that might be appropriate
and willing to do that work too.

 

I think you have to look at using PIs vs. more traditional
element/attribute markup on a case by case basis.

 

An advantage of PIs is that implementations that don’t
understand or support a particular PI should ignore them.  That isn’t
as true for element markup.

 

In the case of change tracking, I think there could be some real
advantages to using PIs.

 

   -Jeff

 

From: Michael Priestley
[mailto:] 

Sent: Friday, October 02, 2009 2:12 PM

To: Park Seth-R01164

Cc: dita

Subject: Re: [dita] Standard DITA processing instructions?

 

My usual
thought is that if we want to standardize it, why make it PIs, which by their
very nature cannot be controlled by a schema? 

For example,
for change tracking there's already some attributes that might be used - but if
we wanted something new, we could create a domain specialized from <data>
and make it broadly available. 

Michael
Priestley, Senior Technical Staff Member (STSM)

Lead IBM DITA Architect 



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

 

  
  
From: 

  
  
  
"Park
  Seth-R01164" <> 

  
 

 

  
  
To: 

  
  
  
"dita"
  <> 

  
 

 

  
  
Date: 

  
  
  
10/02/2009
  02:04 PM 

  
 

 

  
  
Subject: 

  
  
  
[dita]
  Standard DITA processing instructions?

  
 

 

I hope this is
not taboo to suggest, but... 

  

Is it in the TC
purview to provide a way for DITA application developers to undergo some level
of coordination for processing-instructions for common user events? 

  

For instance,
if there were a common nomenclature for "change tracking" PI
notation, an author, editor, reviewer, and publisher could use the most appropriate
tool for his/her specific function and the change tracking feature would work
across those different purpose-specific tools. 

  

Something like
this would allow DITA files to be exchanged where not only the content is
guaranteed to be interoperable, but also commonly used application
"features". 

  

  

bracing for the
blow, 

-seth