This introduction to the DITA Architecture contains overall technical information about the DITA language and its architecture.

In the DITA architecture, DITA topics are organized by DITA maps. It is also possible to nest sub-topics within a topic. Specialization enables the creation of specialized topics and other units of content that are tailored to particular structural requirements. Content referencing (conref) enables fragments of content to be reused from a single source. Conditional processing permits a single source to support the needs of multiple audiences.

The current version of DITA is specified in the OASIS Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) Standard v1.0. The OASIS DITA Technical Committee is currently working on version 1.1.

The OASIS site http://www.oasis-open.org/specs/index.php#ditav1.0 contains the official versions of the following documents:

• DITA Language Reference v1.0 (HTML, PDF)

• DITA Architectural Specification v1.0 ( HTML, PDF)

The following article provides additional information:

Introduction to the Darwin Information Typing Architecture - IBM developerWorks, 01 Mar 2001, Updated 28 Sep 2005
This document is a roadmap for DITA: what it is and how it applies to technical documentation.