Darwin Information Typing Architecture
- IBM Intro: http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-dita1
- Oasis: http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=dita#overview
Definitions
- Topic - The highest standard structure in DITA. Topics are not nested. (Example: A topic within a topic)
- Section - Used for internal organization of a Topic, these define or directly support the topic
- Processing Context - Any higher structure than a topic used to handle context. (Examples: Print-organizing structure or the helpset-like navigation)
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Reuse - Two Levels :: Topic reuse or Course Grain Reuse - Because of the non-nesting structure of topics, a topic can be reused in any topic-like context. :: Content reuse or Fine Grain Reuse - Via a conref attribute that can point to any other equivalent element in the same or any other topic.
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[http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-dita2/index.html Specialization]. Allows any DITA element to be extended into a new element whose identifier gets added to the class attribute through its DTD. Therefore, a new element is always associated to its base, or to any element in its specialization sequence.
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Topic specialization - A way to extend the generic topic into new information types (or infotypes). (Example, a recipe, a material safety data sheet, and an encyclopedia article are all potential derivations from a common reference topic).
NOTE By default, DITA has three specialized topic types: Concept, task, and reference. :::: :: -
Domain specialization - The element vocabulary within a topic (or set of infotyped topics) can be extended by introducing elements that reflect a particular information domain served by those topics. (Example a specialized domain, such as programming phrases, can be introduced by substitution anywhere that the root elements are allowed.
Articles
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[http://thecontentwrangler.com/article/10_dita_lessons_learned/ 10 Lessons Learned Moving to DITA]
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[http://thecontentwrangler.com/site/moving_to_dita_lessons_learned_from_mark_lewis_of_hyperwriters/ Lessons Learned Moving to DITA Article]
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[http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=285881&intsrc=article_pots_side Computer World Introduction Article]