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Darwin
 

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Dita




The entire name of the architecture has this combined explanation:
:Darwin: it uses the principles of specialization and inheritance;
:Information Typing: it capitalizes on the semantics of topics (concept, task, reference) and of content (messages, typed phrases, semantic tables);
:Architecture: it provides vertical headroom (new applications) and edgewise extension (specialization into new types) for information.

Unlike book-oriented approaches that are based on chapters and pages, DITA uses topics - small chunks of information that can be easily reused across various contexts and deliverables. DITA also has built-in extensibility support, meaning you can customize document type definitions (or DTDs) without breaking compatibility with existing applications and processes. Thus DITA helps extend content reuse and reduce information redundancy.

DITA specifies a number of topic types, such as ''Task'', ''Concept'' and ''Reference''.
Within DITA, a ''Task'' topic is intended for a procedure describing how to accomplish a task; lists a series of steps that users follow to produce a specified outcome; identifies who does what, when, where and how.
A ''Reference'' topic is for topics that describe command syntax, programming instructions, other reference material; usually detailed, factual material.


FEATURES OF DITA


  • The topic as an organizing principle.

  • Reuse of whole topics, as well as reuse of partial topics through the use of content references.

  • Specialization of elements to provide:

  • --- Topic specialization.

  • --- Domain specialization.

  • Property-based processing:

  • --- Extensive metadata to make topics easier to find.

  • --- Universal attributes for things like audience and platform to enable filtering and other processing of information.

  • Making use of existing tagsets and tools:

  • --- Leveraging popular language subsets like HTML and XHTML .

  • --- Leveraging popular and well-supported stylesheet languages like XSLT and CSS which allows information to be created using tools like Apache Ant .



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