Comments on: The Rockley Group Blog Is Here! I have a couple of DITA questions http://idratherbewriting.com/2007/10/15/the-rockley-group-blog-is-here-i-have-a-couple-of-dita-questions-for-the-gurus/ The Latest Trends in Technical Communication Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:45:33 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Content Management Skills : The Rockley Blog http://idratherbewriting.com/2007/10/15/the-rockley-group-blog-is-here-i-have-a-couple-of-dita-questions-for-the-gurus/comment-page-1/#comment-71545 Content Management Skills : The Rockley Blog Tue, 04 Dec 2007 13:53:58 +0000 http://www.idratherbewriting.com/2007/10/15/the-rockley-group-blog-is-here-i-have-a-couple-of-dita-questions-for-the-gurus/#comment-71545 <!--%kramer-ref-pre%-->[...] The Rockley Group Blog Is Here! I have a couple of DITA questions | I'd Rather Be Writing on October 20th, 2007 12:28 pm [...]<!--%kramer-ref-post%--> [...] The Rockley Group Blog Is Here! I have a couple of DITA questions | I’d Rather Be Writing on October 20th, 2007 12:28 pm [...]

]]> By: De SeoQuake Firefox Plugin de Zoekmachine Parameters analyse Tool — Search engine optimization http://idratherbewriting.com/2007/10/15/the-rockley-group-blog-is-here-i-have-a-couple-of-dita-questions-for-the-gurus/comment-page-1/#comment-67720 De SeoQuake Firefox Plugin de Zoekmachine Parameters analyse Tool — Search engine optimization Wed, 14 Nov 2007 15:43:00 +0000 http://www.idratherbewriting.com/2007/10/15/the-rockley-group-blog-is-here-i-have-a-couple-of-dita-questions-for-the-gurus/#comment-67720 [...] .chm file) to basic HTML pages. How can DITA be so popular when its online help source: The Rockley Group Blog Is Here! I have a couple of DITA questions, Id Rather Be [...] [...] .chm file) to basic HTML pages. How can DITA be so popular when its online help source: The Rockley Group Blog Is Here! I have a couple of DITA questions, Id Rather Be [...]

]]> By: Tom http://idratherbewriting.com/2007/10/15/the-rockley-group-blog-is-here-i-have-a-couple-of-dita-questions-for-the-gurus/comment-page-1/#comment-63010 Tom Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:04:51 +0000 http://www.idratherbewriting.com/2007/10/15/the-rockley-group-blog-is-here-i-have-a-couple-of-dita-questions-for-the-gurus/#comment-63010 Thanks for the reply, Steve. I was wondering when you'd see the incoming link to your blog. I received a detailed tutorial on Xpress Author, and I've also played around with DITA Storm for a little bit. Re eclipse, maybe I'll look into that a bit more. Thanks for the reply, Steve. I was wondering when you’d see the incoming link to your blog. I received a detailed tutorial on Xpress Author, and I’ve also played around with DITA Storm for a little bit. Re eclipse, maybe I’ll look into that a bit more.

]]> By: Steve Manning http://idratherbewriting.com/2007/10/15/the-rockley-group-blog-is-here-i-have-a-couple-of-dita-questions-for-the-gurus/comment-page-1/#comment-62913 Steve Manning Tue, 23 Oct 2007 18:11:55 +0000 http://www.idratherbewriting.com/2007/10/15/the-rockley-group-blog-is-here-i-have-a-couple-of-dita-questions-for-the-gurus/#comment-62913 Gordon, Thanks for the kind words re. Xpubs. That was a good conference. I also enjoyed that dinner. Maybe we can repeat the experience at next year's Xpubs. Gordon,

Thanks for the kind words re. Xpubs. That was a good conference. I also enjoyed that dinner. Maybe we can repeat the experience at next year’s Xpubs.

]]> By: Steve Manning http://idratherbewriting.com/2007/10/15/the-rockley-group-blog-is-here-i-have-a-couple-of-dita-questions-for-the-gurus/comment-page-1/#comment-62906 Steve Manning Tue, 23 Oct 2007 18:06:12 +0000 http://www.idratherbewriting.com/2007/10/15/the-rockley-group-blog-is-here-i-have-a-couple-of-dita-questions-for-the-gurus/#comment-62906 Tom, thanks for the kind comments on the blog. My answers to your questions: 1. There are three types of HTML/Help that come with the toolkit: xhtml, eclipse, and chm. People have either made do with those or have extended the stylesheets to create something custom. Of course, others have already given you that information. 2. At the DITA 2006 conference in Raleigh, Don Day and some of the other luminaries of the DITA Technical Committee were discussing the "tipping point" -- the point at which DITA could be declared as a main stream solution and no longer "bleeding edge." They felt the tipping point would come with the development of the tools. When the tools effectively support the DITA spec it would recede from the bleeding edge and enter the main stream. Tools are much better now than then. There are tools like In.visions Xpress Author that can pretty much hide the XML from authors, to support the techically-shy (:-)) Frame does a reasonable job at hiding the XML. Even XMetaL and Epic give you multiple views so you can see the tags if you want. So I'm not sure if the tools have pushed DITA over the "tipping point" but there are definitely tools for all kinds of authors. /steve Tom, thanks for the kind comments on the blog.

My answers to your questions:

1. There are three types of HTML/Help that come with the toolkit: xhtml, eclipse, and chm. People have either made do with those or have extended the stylesheets to create something custom. Of course, others have already given you that information.

2. At the DITA 2006 conference in Raleigh, Don Day and some of the other luminaries of the DITA Technical Committee were discussing the “tipping point” — the point at which DITA could be declared as a main stream solution and no longer “bleeding edge.” They felt the tipping point would come with the development of the tools. When the tools effectively support the DITA spec it would recede from the bleeding edge and enter the main stream.

Tools are much better now than then. There are tools like In.visions Xpress Author that can pretty much hide the XML from authors, to support the techically-shy (:-)) Frame does a reasonable job at hiding the XML. Even XMetaL and Epic give you multiple views so you can see the tags if you want.

So I’m not sure if the tools have pushed DITA over the “tipping point” but there are definitely tools for all kinds of authors.

/steve

]]> By: Mike http://idratherbewriting.com/2007/10/15/the-rockley-group-blog-is-here-i-have-a-couple-of-dita-questions-for-the-gurus/comment-page-1/#comment-62588 Mike Mon, 22 Oct 2007 16:02:01 +0000 http://www.idratherbewriting.com/2007/10/15/the-rockley-group-blog-is-here-i-have-a-couple-of-dita-questions-for-the-gurus/#comment-62588 Tom, Eclipse isn't hard to install; it's a standard install file in Windows (though you must have a Java virtual machine in place). Updating and finding new packages can be tricky (though the Update Manager in the current version 3.3 works quite well). I believe there's a list or Yahoo Group for people making Eclipse help, but I don't have that information handy. The DITA-Users group is also a helpful bunch (as are the DocBook-Apps folks). That info is on the dita.xml.org site. Tom,

Eclipse isn’t hard to install; it’s a standard install file in Windows (though you must have a Java virtual machine in place). Updating and finding new packages can be tricky (though the Update Manager in the current version 3.3 works quite well).

I believe there’s a list or Yahoo Group for people making Eclipse help, but I don’t have that information handy. The DITA-Users group is also a helpful bunch (as are the DocBook-Apps folks). That info is on the dita.xml.org site.

]]> By: Tony DaSilva http://idratherbewriting.com/2007/10/15/the-rockley-group-blog-is-here-i-have-a-couple-of-dita-questions-for-the-gurus/comment-page-1/#comment-62003 Tony DaSilva Sat, 20 Oct 2007 16:12:08 +0000 http://www.idratherbewriting.com/2007/10/15/the-rockley-group-blog-is-here-i-have-a-couple-of-dita-questions-for-the-gurus/#comment-62003 Basically spot on, Gordon. With DocBook, you use what you need and ignore the rest. And, yes, DITA was designed with task orientation in mind. That said, writing tasks in DocBook is dead easy. The element "encapsulates a procedure providing an explicit location for summary information, identifying prerequisites for the task, examples, and pointers to related information:" task ::= (blockinfo?, (indexterm)*, (title,titleabbrev?), tasksummary?,taskprerequisites?,procedure,example*,taskrelated?) As for DocBook being left behind, don't count on it. The DocBook TC just let loose the last of the v5 release candidates and is set for a November final release. Development is active and ongoing, and the community remains large and continues to grow. Basically spot on, Gordon. With DocBook, you use what you need and ignore the rest. And, yes, DITA was designed with task orientation in mind.

That said, writing tasks in DocBook is dead easy. The element “encapsulates a procedure providing an explicit location for summary information, identifying prerequisites for the task, examples, and pointers to related information:”

task ::=
(blockinfo?,
(indexterm)*,
(title,titleabbrev?),
tasksummary?,taskprerequisites?,procedure,example*,taskrelated?)

As for DocBook being left behind, don’t count on it. The DocBook TC just let loose the last of the v5 release candidates and is set for a November final release. Development is active and ongoing, and the community remains large and continues to grow.

]]> By: Gordon http://idratherbewriting.com/2007/10/15/the-rockley-group-blog-is-here-i-have-a-couple-of-dita-questions-for-the-gurus/comment-page-1/#comment-61039 Gordon Thu, 18 Oct 2007 07:10:21 +0000 http://www.idratherbewriting.com/2007/10/15/the-rockley-group-blog-is-here-i-have-a-couple-of-dita-questions-for-the-gurus/#comment-61039 Short answer, not yet, but we will be. As for DITA vs DocBook, my basic understanding is that DITA offers a smaller set of elements to start with, you can then build (specialise) on them to get to where you want to be. DocBook offers a large set of elements, a lot of which may be redundant but you'll need to do less work on the DTD. DITA is very much focussed on task-based documentation, and has been built to suit. Short answer, not yet, but we will be.

As for DITA vs DocBook, my basic understanding is that DITA offers a smaller set of elements to start with, you can then build (specialise) on them to get to where you want to be. DocBook offers a large set of elements, a lot of which may be redundant but you’ll need to do less work on the DTD.

DITA is very much focussed on task-based documentation, and has been built to suit.

]]> By: Tom http://idratherbewriting.com/2007/10/15/the-rockley-group-blog-is-here-i-have-a-couple-of-dita-questions-for-the-gurus/comment-page-1/#comment-60947 Tom Thu, 18 Oct 2007 01:27:51 +0000 http://www.idratherbewriting.com/2007/10/15/the-rockley-group-blog-is-here-i-have-a-couple-of-dita-questions-for-the-gurus/#comment-60947 Thanks Gordon. I think I am familiar with DITA enough conceptually, and I know there are a number of different outputs supported by the Open Source Toolkit. Maybe I'm just waiting around for someone to create the XSLT style sheets that will transform it into the nice little output I want. Just curious, are you using DITA? Why or why not? Thanks Gordon. I think I am familiar with DITA enough conceptually, and I know there are a number of different outputs supported by the Open Source Toolkit. Maybe I’m just waiting around for someone to create the XSLT style sheets that will transform it into the nice little output I want.

Just curious, are you using DITA? Why or why not?

]]> By: Tom http://idratherbewriting.com/2007/10/15/the-rockley-group-blog-is-here-i-have-a-couple-of-dita-questions-for-the-gurus/comment-page-1/#comment-60946 Tom Thu, 18 Oct 2007 01:25:58 +0000 http://www.idratherbewriting.com/2007/10/15/the-rockley-group-blog-is-here-i-have-a-couple-of-dita-questions-for-the-gurus/#comment-60946 Deb, thanks for the link -- I checked it out. I remember seeing Eclipse help and thinking that it would be a perfect replacement to the RoboHelp style webhelp that I'm used to. However, someone told me that installing Eclipse is extremely difficult. I've been wanting to do a podcast on DITA for a while, particularly by someone who is not a vendor and who is actually implementing it. Are you interested? What tool are you using as your DITA/XML editor? Deb, thanks for the link — I checked it out. I remember seeing Eclipse help and thinking that it would be a perfect replacement to the RoboHelp style webhelp that I’m used to. However, someone told me that installing Eclipse is extremely difficult.

I’ve been wanting to do a podcast on DITA for a while, particularly by someone who is not a vendor and who is actually implementing it. Are you interested?

What tool are you using as your DITA/XML editor?

]]>