by Don Day, Chair, OASIS DITA Technical Committee
IBM Lead DITA Architect
The OASIS DITA standard:
The current standard is at DITA 1.0. During 2006, committee work was focused on developing the proposed DITA 1.1 features (see "Roadmap for DITA development" at http://wiki.oasis-open.org/dita/Roadmap_for_DITA_development). Just last month, the committee released a Public Review draft for DITA 1.1, which is expected to be approved later this year.
One of the major additions to DITA 1.1 is a formalized bookmap design that supports most full-featured publishing requirements for print-oriented media.
The DITA Open Toolkit:
The latest major version is 1.3, and the latest patch level is 1.3.1. For the 1.3 release, a new "full package" download was devised--you can download this package, unzip it, and then click on a command file to open up a build window with all the necessary setup already done for that instance. This is by far the easiest way to get up and running for a demo, evaluation, or light work (see http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/dita-users/message/3767). The next major version, 1.4, will be later this year, timed to provide full support for OASIS DITA 1.1 once it is formally approved as a standard.
At the 1.2 release early in 2006, a new plugin architecture was introduced to enable developers to contribute independent support for new transforms and new specializations. Among new capabilities introduced as plugins during 2006 were: a commercial-strength FO formatting transform contributed by Idiom, a publishing plugin for FrameMaker, and specializations for API Ref, Taxonomy, context sensitive help, among others.
At the 1.2.2 release during 2006, a new DITA Open Toolkit User's Guide was contributed to the project. It is currently up to date for the 1.3 level of the Toolkit. http://dita-ot.sourceforge.net/SourceForgeFiles/doc/user_guide.html
The DITA community:
OASIS provided a new support site called the DITA Focus Area (http://dita.xml.org) that is a one-stop shop for information about DITA. Major vendors of XML editing and Content Managment tools announced full support for DITA during 2006. A number of DITA User Groups were started in major US cities, and others are being proposed currently (http://dita.xml.org/user-groups). This list basically doubled in size to over 1300 registered members since the start of 2006. There are now at least two separate conference organizations that support DITA tracks at each conference, as well as several European conferences that provide contact opportunities for DITA users.
Overall, 2006 was a busy, exciting year for DITA users!
IBM Lead DITA Architect
The OASIS DITA standard:
The current standard is at DITA 1.0. During 2006, committee work was focused on developing the proposed DITA 1.1 features (see "Roadmap for DITA development" at http://wiki.oasis-open.org/dita/Roadmap_for_DITA_development). Just last month, the committee released a Public Review draft for DITA 1.1, which is expected to be approved later this year.
One of the major additions to DITA 1.1 is a formalized bookmap design that supports most full-featured publishing requirements for print-oriented media.
The DITA Open Toolkit:
The latest major version is 1.3, and the latest patch level is 1.3.1. For the 1.3 release, a new "full package" download was devised--you can download this package, unzip it, and then click on a command file to open up a build window with all the necessary setup already done for that instance. This is by far the easiest way to get up and running for a demo, evaluation, or light work (see http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/dita-users/message/3767). The next major version, 1.4, will be later this year, timed to provide full support for OASIS DITA 1.1 once it is formally approved as a standard.
At the 1.2 release early in 2006, a new plugin architecture was introduced to enable developers to contribute independent support for new transforms and new specializations. Among new capabilities introduced as plugins during 2006 were: a commercial-strength FO formatting transform contributed by Idiom, a publishing plugin for FrameMaker, and specializations for API Ref, Taxonomy, context sensitive help, among others.
At the 1.2.2 release during 2006, a new DITA Open Toolkit User's Guide was contributed to the project. It is currently up to date for the 1.3 level of the Toolkit. http://dita-ot.sourceforge.net/SourceForgeFiles/doc/user_guide.html
The DITA community:
OASIS provided a new support site called the DITA Focus Area (http://dita.xml.org) that is a one-stop shop for information about DITA. Major vendors of XML editing and Content Managment tools announced full support for DITA during 2006. A number of DITA User Groups were started in major US cities, and others are being proposed currently (http://dita.xml.org/user-groups). This list basically doubled in size to over 1300 registered members since the start of 2006. There are now at least two separate conference organizations that support DITA tracks at each conference, as well as several European conferences that provide contact opportunities for DITA users.
Overall, 2006 was a busy, exciting year for DITA users!
