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RE: Help project structure
- From: mpriestl at ca dot ibm dot com
- To: Dave Pawson <DaveP at dpawson dot freeserve dot co dot uk>
- Cc: "Nancy (Paisner) Harrison" <nancyh at rational dot com>,docbook-apps at lists dot oasis-open dot org
- Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2002 16:24:24 -0500
- Subject: RE: DOCBOOK-APPS: Help project structure
Dave Pawson:
>Hence the question. Is it truly a topic (DITA wise) if its not standalone?
Punting to the DITA FAQ:
"A topic is a chunk of information organized around a single subject.
Structurally, it is a title followed by text and images, optionally
organized into sections. Topics can be of many different types, the most
common being concepts, tasks, and reference."
So, technically, no, a topic doesn't need to be standalone to be a topic.
But from the same FAQ, for the question "Why topics?":
"DITA is based on topics because they are the optimal size to allow reuse
in different delivery contexts without affecting a writer's efficiency. If
we choose a smaller unit, the writer needs to check the unit in all its
contexts to make sure that information flows correctly. If we choose a
larger unit, the information cannot be easily reassembled into structures
that different delivery contexts (such as a Web site or a book) require. A
topic is large enough to be self contained from a writer's point of view
but small enough to reuse effectively in whatever higher-level structure a
particular delivery context requires."
So while a topic in the DITA sense doesn't need to be standalone, part of
the point of topics is that they are reusable, in a way that smaller or
larger units aren't.
Sum:
- transitional text is definitely too small and context-specific to be
appropriately treated as a topic.
- so, in a hypothetical map that allowed transitional text, the generic
process for topic references would be inappropriate, and you'd need special
treatment for the "glue" (which, unlike the topics, might as well be
content of the map, since it won't be particularly reusable anywhere else).
By the way, apologies to the DocBook folks - I don't mean to appropriate
this list's focus. It probably makes sense to continue this in xml-doc, if
there's interest in continuing.
Michael Priestley
DITA Specialization Architect
mpriestl@ca.ibm.com
Dept 833 IBM Canada t/l: 969-3233 phone: 905-413-3233
Toronto Information Development