OASIS Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) TC

The DITA declaration sets are designed to be configurable without 
otherwise changing the declarations or creating a new specialization 
layer. This is alluded to in various places but I think it would be 
useful to have a brief discussion of configuration, customization, and 
specialization at the beginning of the specialization section that makes 
the differences clear, both from a syntax and practice standpoint, and 
from a conformance standpoint.

For example, in the section "What is specialization?" it would be useful 
to at that point introduce the related concepts of configuration and 
customization and maybe have parallel topics on them at that level.

Cheers,

Eliot
-- 
W. Eliot Kimber
Professional Services
Innodata Isogen
8500 N. Mopac, Suite 402
Austin, TX 78759
(214) 954-5198

ekimber@innodata-isogen.com
www.innodata-isogen.com

There is a topic called "Modularization
and integration" that discusses this.

I am beginning to think that the existing
structure of the specialization section is causing some problems. It is
currently divided into three sections: content (how specialization is expressed
in XML instances), design (how specializations are created and integrated
into doctypes), and processing (how specialization-aware processes should
deal with specialized content).  This structure was based on input
from the TC in the 1.0 timeframe (notably you, Eliot) but I'm concerned
that it is separating some topics that would otherwise naturally belong
together (like the various topics on attribute specialization, and now
the topics on specialization vs. integration).

That said, I'm reluctant to take up
the task of rewriting the entire section on specialization around new organizing
principles. Most of the content is there, and we might be able to get most
of what you want simply by reorganizing the topics, but I'm not sure we
should be attempting it at this point in the DITA 1.1 release.

Michael Priestley

IBM DITA Architect and Classification Schema PDT Lead

mpriestl@ca.ibm.com

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





"W. Eliot Kimber"
<ekimber@innodata-isogen.com> 
01/23/2007 02:50 PM




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Subject
[dita] Configuration vs Specialization






The DITA declaration sets are designed to be configurable
without

otherwise changing the declarations or creating a new specialization

layer. This is alluded to in various places but I think it would be

useful to have a brief discussion of configuration, customization, and

specialization at the beginning of the specialization section that makes

the differences clear, both from a syntax and practice standpoint, and

from a conformance standpoint.


For example, in the section "What is specialization?" it would
be useful

to at that point introduce the related concepts of configuration and

customization and maybe have parallel topics on them at that level.


Cheers,


Eliot

--

W. Eliot Kimber

Professional Services

Innodata Isogen

8500 N. Mopac, Suite 402

Austin, TX 78759

(214) 954-5198


ekimber@innodata-isogen.com

www.innodata-isogen.com