Lightweight DITA (LwDITA) is a simplified version of the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA). In comparison to DITA XML, LwDITA has a smaller element and attribute set, stricter content models, and a reduced feature set. LwDITA also defines mappings between XML, HTML5, and Markdown, enabling authoring, collaboration, and publishing across different markup languages.
The DITA XML standard is a mature architecture with a deep set of advanced features. Those features, while useful for large projects, can also intimidate practitioners and academics interested in learning about DITA. LwDITA is a proposed standards-based alternative that offers a starting point for simple structured authoring scenarios that remains fully compatible with DITA XML and is more accessible to professional communicators who do not work in XML-based authoring workflows.
Some authoring communities have strong ties to specific formats, such as Markdown or HTML. While these formats do not have the same expressiveness as XML, they bring with them a set of tools and practices that can be a natural fit with a DITA ecosystem. LwDITA acknowledges the importance and popularity of lightweight languages and includes mappings for HTML5 and Markdown, thus becoming the first version of DITA to be truly cross-format —allowing authoring and delivery in a mix of native formats that are all mapped to a common semantic standard.
The Lightweight DITA subcommittee with OASIS developed this proposed standard identifying key authoring communities that were interested in the benefits that LwDITA could provide; it then identified scenarios including cross-format authoring and reuse. LwDITA represents common ground for the functionality that is needed by the following authoring communities: learning and training, software documentation authored by subject matter experts (SMEs), and marketing content.
The core goals of LwDITA are the following:
* Enable a simpler structured authoring experience than DITA provides, while retaining many core DITA features. * Specify syntaxes based on XML, HTML5, and Markdown, that enable individuals to: ** Author content in the format of their choice ** Easily exchange and publish content whose source exists in these different markup languages ** Foster the growth of new, low-cost tools and applications that support LwDITA. * Integrate with full DITA-based workflows, without requiring transformation or conversion of source content.
In its initial release, LwDITA specifies three authoring formats:
These authoring formats will enable and enhance collaboration across divisional silos. Engineers can author in Markdown, marketing writers can author in HTML5, and technical writers and others familiar with DITA can author in XML. Documents authored in the various authoring formats can be aggregated and published as a single document collection. They can also be published along with full DITA 1.3 topics and maps.
LwDITA is still under development as an open standard, but interested professional communicators from industry and academia can track its progress through the OASIS Lightweight DITA subcommittee.
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EVIA, Carlos and HOUSER, Alan, 2018. Lightweight DITA: Making Structured Authoring More Accessible for Professional Communicators. In: 2018 IEEE International Professional Communication Conference (ProComm). Online. July 2018. p. 219–221. DOI 10.1109/ProComm.2018.00050. [Accessed 29 November 2023]. Lightweight DITA (LwDITA) provides a simplified standard (compared to XML-based alternatives) for authoring in a semantic markup language, while supporting multiple authoring formats. This paper describes the inception, goals, and development of the LwDITA standard.
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