The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) 1.1 specification
defines both a) a set of document types for authoring and organizing topic-oriented
information; and b) a set of mechanisms for combining and extending document
types using a process called specialization.
The specification consists of:
- The DTDs and schemas that define DITA markup for the base DITA document
types, as well as catalog files. While the DTDs and schemas should define
the same DITA elements, the DTDs are normative if there is ever any discrepancy.
- The language reference that provides explanations for each element in
the base DITA document types
- This document, which has the following parts:
- an introduction, which provides background concepts and an overview of
the architecture
- the DITA markup specification, which provides an overview of DITA's base
document types
- the DITA processing specification, which provides descriptions of common
DITA processing expectations
- the DITA specialization specification, which provides details of the mechanisms
DITA provides for defining and extending DITA document types.
This document is part of the technical specification for the DITA architecture.
While the specification does contain some introductory information, it is
not intended as an introduction to DITA nor as a users guide. The intended
audience of this specification consists of implementers of the DITA standard,
including tool developers and specializers.
Changes since DITA 1.0
The DITA 1.1 specification
is designed to be backwards-compatible with 1.0-conforming applications. The
following major changes to the architecture provide added functionality for
1.1:
- A <bookmap> specialization for encoding book-specific information in
a DITA map
- A <glossentry> specialization for glossary entries
- Indexing specializations for see, see-also, page ranges, and sort order
- Improvements to graphic scaling capability
- Improved short description flexibility through a new <abstract> element
- Specialization support for new global attributes, such as conditional
processing attributes
- Support for integration of existing content structures through the <foreign>
element
- Support for new kinds of information and structures through the <data>
and <unknown> elements
- Formalization of conditional processing profiles
Editors
- Michael Priestley and JoAnn Hackos
Members of the OASIS DITA Technical Committee
- Robert Anderson, IBM
- Paul Antonov
- France Baril, IXIASOFT
- Paul Barley, IBM
- Bob Bernard, IBM
- Kylene Bruski, Comtech Services, Inc.
- Sissi Closs, Comet Communication
- Robin Cover, OASIS
- Don Day, IBM
- Greg DeVore, Blue Mango Learning Systems
- Stanley Doherty, Sun Microsystems
- Bruce Esrig, Lucent Technologies
- Yas Etessam, XMetal
- Kay Ethier
- Alice Etim, IBM
- Kevin Farwell, Lionbridge
- Klaus Fenchel, Ovidius
- Rob Frankland, Rascal Software
- Michael Gannon, XMetal
- Anne Gentle, BMC Software
- Gerald Goetz, Noxum GmbH
- Paul Grosso, PTC/Arbortext
- JoAnn Hackos, Comtech Services, Inc.
- Nancy Harrison, IBM
- Erik Hennum, IBM
- Eric Hixson, BMC Software
- Alan Houser
- Scott Hudson, Flatirons Solutions Corporation
- John Hunt, IBM
- Gershon Joseph, Tech-Tav Documentation Ltd.
- Eliot Kimber, Innodata Isogen
- Chris Kravogel
- Seraphim Larsen, Intel Corporation
- Indi Liepa, Nokia Corporation
- Jennifer Linton, Gambro BCT
- Steven Manning, Rockley Group
- Glen Mules, IBM
- Sukumar Munshi, Lionbridge
- Ultan Obroin, Oracle Corporation
- Frank Peters, Sun Microsystems
- Deborah Pickett, Moldflow Corporation
- Mark Poston, Mekon Limited
- Alex Povzner, SiberLogic, Inc.
- Paul Prescod, XMetaL
- Michael Priestley, IBM
- Rodolfo Raya, Heartsome Holdings Pte Ltd.
- Matthias Rehsoeft, Gesellschaft fur technische Kommunikation-tekom
- Nick Rosenthal
- David Schell, IBM
- Roland Schmeling
- Anthony Self, Hyperwrite Pty. Ltd.
- Punyanjan Sen, Adobe Systems
- Wendy Shepperd, BMC Software
- Peter Shepton, Intel Corporation
- Eric Sirois, IBM
- Jerry Smith, US Department of Defense (DoD)
- Dana Spradley, Oracle Corporation
- Robert Stayton
- Amber Swope, XMetaL
- Mark Tiegs, Research In Motion
- Armando Torres, Comtech Services, Inc.
- Scott Tsao, The Boeing Company
- Sharon Veach, Sun Microsystems
- Kate Wilhelm, Research in Motion
- Christopher Wong, Idiom Technologies, Inc
- Andrzej Zydron, XML Intl.
Special thanks
Special thanks to Robert Anderson
of IBM for his work on improving the language reference through document generation
processes and through editing of topics to incorporate numerous
review comments.
Special thanks to Jeff Ogden of PTC for his numerous
detailed reviews of both the language specification and architectural specification,
which has resulted in a large number of editorial improvements.
History
| 2004-04-12 |
OASIS DITA Technical Committee formed with initial submission
of materials from IBM |
| 2005-06-01 |
OASIS DITA 1.0 specification approved by OASIS |