Re: [dita] Suggestion for a media object in DITA 2.0

Thanks, I will have a good look at that and let you know what my thoughts about future-proofness of the domain are.

Jang F.M. GraatSmart Information DesignAmsterdam, NetherlandsCell: +31 646 854 996

On 8 May 2018, at 19:12, Carlos Evia <> wrote:

Jang,

There's already a multimedia domain in the works for 2.0 (https://github.com/oasis-tcs/dita/issues/27) that will also become an addendum for 1.3.

The proposed domain reflects what HTML5 (and HDITA, as a consequence) does with video and audio.

Best,

Carlos

-- 

Carlos Evia, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Technical Communication

Virginia Tech

Blacksburg, VA 24061-0112

(540)200-8201

On Tue, May 8, 2018 at 1:09 PM, Mr. Jang Graat <> wrote:This is something I would like to see discussed in both the DITA TC and the LwDITA SC, as there should obviously be compatibility between LwDITA (at least in the XDITA variant) and DITA 2.0. 

The draft specs for LwDITA introduce a <video> and an <audio> with different sets of child elements. This strikes me a status quo way of looking at the rapidly changing world of content, where I would like to suggest a forward-looking approach.

I suggest creating a new base element called <media>, which can be specialized to become <audio>, <image>, <video>, <vrmodel>, <smell>, <touch> or whatever else the future will bring. The new <media> would have some mandatory attributes (such as @src or @href) and child elements (such as <alt>) and a bunch of optional attributes and elements that may or may not be meaningful depending on the type of media that is being linked into the content.

In this way, we prepare DITA 2.0 for the future, whatever that future may bring in new types of media. After all, we have the power of specialisation in DITA. With a new base type that is as generically valid as we can imagine it, we prepare DITA 2.0 for the future, not for what we know today.

Kind regards

Jang F.M. Graat
Smart Information Design
Amsterdam, Netherlands