Guidelines for externally-published versions of the DITA spec

Several TC members met with OASIS TC Admin, Chet Ensign, on Friday
    to clarify requirements for when people publish copies of the DITA
    specification in external applications.

    

    Chet looked at the draft 1.3 spec, as published in SuiteHelp and
    Titania, and stated that the primary requirements are:

    
      
That the OASIS copyright and notices be clearly rendered. 

      
(For drafts) That the cover page clearly indicate that the
        spec is a draft and indicate where the official source files are
        located.

    
    
Other points that we discussed include:

    

    
      
The content of <shortdesc> must be rendered as the first
        paragraph of a topic.

      
Applications should consider rendering short descriptions as
        link previews, but that this is not required.

      
(For drafts) Applications should consider rendering draft
        comments, but that this is not required.

      
Vendors publishing versions of the spec in their own
        application should consider providing information about their
        product and design choices.

      

    
    
I've edited the cover page topic pretty extensively, to remove
      sections that are only relevant when we are in the formal OASIS
      process, and to add the guidelines for folks who are publishing a
      copy of the draft spec.

    

    
I've also edited the root maps to include a 2nd set of notices.
      We'll exclude the new notices when we publish OASIS versions of
      the spec, but their presence will ensure that the notices are
      included when someone publishes the spec content. (The original
      notices had linking="none" toc="no, and so possibly would not be
      included when published by someone else.)

    
-- 

      Best,

      Kris

      

      Kristen James Eberlein

      Chair, OASIS DITA Technical Committee

      Principal consultant, Eberlein Consulting

      www.eberleinconsulting.com

      +1 919 682-2290; kriseberlein (skype)