Frequently Asked Questions

How does DITA differ from DocBook?

It's important to recognize that DocBook and DITA take fundamentally different approaches.

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Where can I learn more about topic-oriented writing and user assistance?

The DITA FAQs provide additional information about topic oriented writing. The following sites also provide background on information architecture principles inherent in DITA:

  1. Minimalism (John Carroll)
  2. DITA: An XML-based Technical Documentation Authoring and Publishing Architecture
  3. Read more

Why is "Darwin" in the name of this architecture?

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

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