General DITA questions

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Translation Memory

Forum topic: Submitted by jbcampo on Wed, 2007-11-14 17:42.

We are planning to migrate our legacy html data to XML, and hopefully DITA. Legacy data was created in RoboHelp HTML 2002. A big issue is the impact on existing Translation Memory.

We do in-house translation into 12 non-English languages. Translators use SDLX Trados and related Trados tools (Tag Editor) to localize from English source. Translators have an enormous existing Translation Memory for each language.

Does DITA provide both schemas and DTDs?

Forum topic: Submitted by carolgeyer on Thu, 2007-09-13 19:30. Last updated on Fri, 2007-09-14 20:07.

The basic concepts of DITA are not tied to implementation. Both schemas and DTDs can be used to define specializable DITA elements. The current DITA Open Toolkit provides both DTDs and XML Schemas.

How does DITA differ from DocBook?

Forum topic: Submitted by carolgeyer on Thu, 2007-09-13 19:28. Last updated on Fri, 2007-09-14 20:05.

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

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

Forum topic: Submitted by carolgeyer on Thu, 2007-09-13 19:26. Last updated on Fri, 2007-09-14 20:07.

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

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

Forum topic: Submitted by carolgeyer on Thu, 2007-09-13 19:24. Last updated on Fri, 2007-09-14 20:07.

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