Re: DITA in Lenya

Florent André wrote:
> Hi ! Welcome on Lenya ! 
>
> Thank for this REALLY INTERESTING format. I don't know it before, and I
> find underlying ideas very goods ! 
>
> --------------------------
> During my reading of wiki documentation, I find that : 
> "Future versions of HTML may support deeper transclusion of portions of
> documents using XML technologies such as entities, XPointer document
> referencing, and XSLT manipulations. (XPointer is patent-encumbered.)"
>
> - So, for you, what is the main advantage of the DITA format in front of
> possibilities offer by other html,xhtml,... format ? 
>   
This is not supposed to be an advertisement, and I apologize if this bit 
is wandering OT

To briefly repeat what you've likely read (and for others): the 
topic-based structuring of DITA allows for modular creation of data 
(with some advanced selection, automatic referencing etc.).  This allows 
for comprehensive user documentation to be quickly produced by 
assembling background information from preexisting files which can then 
be slightly tailored and built on top of.  Any changes are also easily 
propagated through all of the documentation which uses the files, easing 
maintenance. 

This technology has generally seemingly been adopted by large 
companies.  I'm actually solo and use the above features to produce 
enterprise-level documentation without a prohibitive time investment.

The advantage of DITA over HTML and XHTML is the semantic XML which is 
then used for the multiple deliverables (also essentially what Cocoon is 
geared towards).   The most comparable  XML  based language is Docbook 
(originally SGML) which is more full-publication oriented and therefore 
lacks the content reuse related functionality. 
> - What kind of usecase do you imagine for the DITA/Lenya couple ?
>   
I'm primarily interested in the fairly simple use of Lenya to manage the 
DITA source (XML) files.  Allowing an interface to easily create/modify 
the files according to their schema (ported to RelaxNG), and maintain 
the file structure.  I would handle the creation of distributables using 
Lenya-less  Cocoon, which could then be incorporated back into Lenya to 
provide previews or other relevant functionality. 

My personal goal is to use Lenya to manage the files to be used outside 
of Lenya; the optional driving of Lenya using DITA files could follow 
(bringing some advantages with it) that but would likely require 
significantly more time (which I likely wouldn't spend unless the 
project gains momentum).  I would think this could be beneficial to 
Lenya as a whole also since it brings inherent information logic which 
could smoothly carry into publications. This would enable things like 
well structured sites to be automagically created from topics which 
remain focused on the data.

> ---------------------------
> Some interesting things I find during my "clic and read session" :
>
> * An example of DITA more "sweet" than the specification : 
> http://dita-ot.sourceforge.net/doc/ot-userguide131/ditaotug131-18042007-garage.zip
>
> * If I well understand the DITA Open Toolkit is a DITA processor that allow
> to transform dita content into another format (pdf, html,...). The good
> news are : 
> - This implementation is open-source
> - in java
> - seems to be active
> - have an apache licenced release !
> (http://sourceforge.net/projects/dita-ot/files/)
>
> * don't find open source server editor for DITA (I think of a "funny-clic
> editor for my mother" of course)...
>
>   
There are few user-friendly free editors, I generally just use the XML 
features in emacs or Eclipse.  XMLMind XML Editor (XXE - 
http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/) has decent integration.  I believe 
XMLSpy also has good support for a limited expense.  Ensuring strong 
support in BXE would be another of my goals with Lenya integration.
> If you have another example, simple tutorial, cool information,... I will
> be glad to read them.
>
>   
Because it has yet to be widely adopted, there doesn't seem to be an 
abundance of user information.  If you're looking for a good overview 
and want to kill some time, the videos at the link below cover all the 
basics.

http://dita.xml.org/dita-introduction-authoring-and-information-architecture-workshop-full-day

> have a good day.
>
> On Tue, 15 Sep 2009 09:36:40 -0400, Matt Whipple <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>   
>> I've just started to use Lenya and am interested in integrating DITA 
>> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_Information_Typing_Architecture) 
>> into it.  I've started to work on an initial ResourceType module but am 
>> wondering if there are any existing solutions already out there.  Any 
>> guidance would be appreciated.
>>
>>
>>     
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected]
> For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
>
>