[vote] Re-vote for Derby docs in DITA

[Jeff Levitt <de...@mylevita.com>]

[ ] +1: Approve DITA adoption
[ ]  0: Abstain
[ ] -1: Keeping looking for other options

Sorry I forgot to include the voting options above in
my first call for a vote.  We need 3 positives for
adoption...

Thanks!
Jeff

Details on the vote for those who want an update:
We need to decide whether to use the DITA source files
for our documentation, or to continue to look for
other options.  Currently, we use html as our source. 
This does not allow us to create PDF's, create single
html files for each document, or dynamically update
indexes.  DITA sourcing allows us to do that.  If you
navigate to the Manuals page of the Derby website,
you'll find a working sample PDF of the Getting
Started guide created from DITA source files.  We can
also recreate the html any way we want, or create
xhtml for use in an Eclipse-based infocenter.

Re: [vote] Re-vote for Derby docs in DITA

["Jean T. Anderson" <jt...@bristowhill.com>]

Andrew McIntyre wrote:

> <snip />
>
>After my first foray into Forrest and working with (and building) the
>Derby website, I am very much in favor of this, as Forrest's
>performance on the hundreds of HTML files that currently constitute
>our manuals leaves more than a little something to be desired.
><snip />
>  
>
Seeing is believing.  :-)
For the list, 'forrest site' of the derby website on a 350 Mhz box with 
1 Gig memory takes a little over 30 minutes -- if nothing else is 
running and competing for resources. Otherwise, it can take a whole lot 
longer.

 -jean

Re: [vote] Re-vote for Derby docs in DITA

[RPost <rp...@pacbell.net>]

+1
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "James Eacret" <ja...@gmail.com>
To: "Derby Development" <de...@db.apache.org>
Sent: Monday, February 14, 2005 3:39 PM
Subject: Re: [vote] Re-vote for Derby docs in DITA


> +1
> 
> 
> On Mon, 14 Feb 2005 15:31:31 -0800, Andrew McIntyre
> <mc...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Fri, 11 Feb 2005 10:01:00 -0800 (PST), Jeff Levitt
> > <de...@mylevita.com> wrote:
> > > [ ] +1: Approve DITA adoption
> > 
> > +1!
> > 
> > After my first foray into Forrest and working with (and building) the
> > Derby website, I am very much in favor of this, as Forrest's
> > performance on the hundreds of HTML files that currently constitute
> > our manuals leaves more than a little something to be desired.
> > 
> > I also find it much easier to search through single-page HTML docs for
> > specific items, and having clean, printable PDFs is icing on the cake,
> > for sure.
> > 
> > andrew
> >

RE: [vote] Re-vote for Derby docs in DITA

[Brian Abbott <br...@dommoni.com>]

I think that the DITA adoption would be furthered if each site or
project that does adopt DITA offers a LDP style HOW-TO

Brian

-----Original Message-----
From: James Eacret [mailto:james.eacret@gmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, February 14, 2005 3:39 PM
To: Derby Development
Subject: Re: [vote] Re-vote for Derby docs in DITA


+1


On Mon, 14 Feb 2005 15:31:31 -0800, Andrew McIntyre
<mc...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, 11 Feb 2005 10:01:00 -0800 (PST), Jeff Levitt
> <de...@mylevita.com> wrote:
> > [ ] +1: Approve DITA adoption
> 
> +1!
> 
> After my first foray into Forrest and working with (and building) the
> Derby website, I am very much in favor of this, as Forrest's
> performance on the hundreds of HTML files that currently constitute
> our manuals leaves more than a little something to be desired.
> 
> I also find it much easier to search through single-page HTML docs for
> specific items, and having clean, printable PDFs is icing on the cake,
> for sure.
> 
> andrew
>

RE: [vote] Re-vote for Derby docs in DITA

[Jeff Levitt <de...@mylevita.com>]

> How do I use the DITA Docs? Is there a "DITA
> Reader"? What is the common
> way to read/view these documents?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Brian
> 

Brian,

DITA is essentially an implementation of XML.  So DITA
files are just XML files using a specific dtd/schema. 
You can view DITA, as well as any XML file, using XML
authoring software, such as XMLSpy, Epic, etc.  Those
cost money.  However, I am pretty sure there are free
XML authoring tools out there as well, anyone know of
any?

Whatever tool you use, you'll want to plug in the DITA
toolkit dtd's so that the authoring tool can validate
the DITA files you are working on.

More information on DITA, as well as how to output
DITA to PDF using FOP, and html using saxon, is
available on the Derby manuals page at:

http://incubator.apache.org/derby/manuals/index.html

I've done a lot of work with the DITA files myself, as
well as transforming them using saxon and FOP, so if
you have any more questions, please post by all means!

We still are playing with the xsl files, so if you or
anyone else has xsl knowledge and would like to
improve our pdf output, it would be appreciated by
all.

Hope that helps,
Jeff

RE: [vote] Re-vote for Derby docs in DITA

[Brian Abbott <br...@dommoni.com>]

How do I use the DITA Docs? Is there a "DITA Reader"? What is the common
way to read/view these documents?

Thanks,

Brian

-----Original Message-----
From: James Eacret [mailto:james.eacret@gmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, February 14, 2005 3:39 PM
To: Derby Development
Subject: Re: [vote] Re-vote for Derby docs in DITA


+1


On Mon, 14 Feb 2005 15:31:31 -0800, Andrew McIntyre
<mc...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, 11 Feb 2005 10:01:00 -0800 (PST), Jeff Levitt
> <de...@mylevita.com> wrote:
> > [ ] +1: Approve DITA adoption
> 
> +1!
> 
> After my first foray into Forrest and working with (and building) the
> Derby website, I am very much in favor of this, as Forrest's
> performance on the hundreds of HTML files that currently constitute
> our manuals leaves more than a little something to be desired.
> 
> I also find it much easier to search through single-page HTML docs for
> specific items, and having clean, printable PDFs is icing on the cake,
> for sure.
> 
> andrew
>

Re: [vote] Re-vote for Derby docs in DITA

[James Eacret <ja...@gmail.com>]

+1


On Mon, 14 Feb 2005 15:31:31 -0800, Andrew McIntyre
<mc...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, 11 Feb 2005 10:01:00 -0800 (PST), Jeff Levitt
> <de...@mylevita.com> wrote:
> > [ ] +1: Approve DITA adoption
> 
> +1!
> 
> After my first foray into Forrest and working with (and building) the
> Derby website, I am very much in favor of this, as Forrest's
> performance on the hundreds of HTML files that currently constitute
> our manuals leaves more than a little something to be desired.
> 
> I also find it much easier to search through single-page HTML docs for
> specific items, and having clean, printable PDFs is icing on the cake,
> for sure.
> 
> andrew
>

Re: [vote] Re-vote for Derby docs in DITA

[Andrew McIntyre <mc...@gmail.com>]

On Fri, 11 Feb 2005 10:01:00 -0800 (PST), Jeff Levitt
<de...@mylevita.com> wrote:
> [ ] +1: Approve DITA adoption

+1!

After my first foray into Forrest and working with (and building) the
Derby website, I am very much in favor of this, as Forrest's
performance on the hundreds of HTML files that currently constitute
our manuals leaves more than a little something to be desired.

I also find it much easier to search through single-page HTML docs for
specific items, and having clean, printable PDFs is icing on the cake,
for sure.

andrew

Re: [vote] Re-vote for Derby docs in DITA

[scott hutinger <s-...@wiu.edu>]

+1

The advantages are far too great to get a negative.
scott

Jeff Levitt wrote:

>[ ] +1: Approve DITA adoption
>[ ]  0: Abstain
>[ ] -1: Keeping looking for other options
>
>Sorry I forgot to include the voting options above in
>my first call for a vote.  We need 3 positives for
>adoption...
>  
>
<snip>

Re: [vote] Re-vote for Derby docs in DITA

[Jeremy Boynes <jb...@apache.org>]

Jeff Levitt wrote:
> [ ] +1: Approve DITA adoption
> [ ]  0: Abstain
> [ ] -1: Keeping looking for other options
> 

Sorry for the delay, don't know much about DITA but it sounds like a 
good idea.

+1

--
Jeremy

Re: [vote] Re-vote for Derby docs in DITA

[Satheesh Bandaram <sa...@Sourcery.Org>]

+1. Moving to DITA improves things... so...

Satheesh

Jean wrote:

> Jeff Levitt wrote:
>
>> [ ] +1: Approve DITA adoption
>> [ ]  0: Abstain
>> [ ] -1: Keeping looking for other options
>>
>> Sorry I forgot to include the voting options above in
>> my first call for a vote.  We need 3 positives for
>> adoption...
>> <snip />
>>  
>>
> Anyone can vote -- you don't have to be a committer.  The docs need to
> work well for the community as a whole.
>
> -jean
>
>

Re: [vote] Re-vote for Derby docs in DITA

[Suresh Thalamati <su...@gmail.com>]

+1


Jean wrote:

> Jeff Levitt wrote:
>
>> [ ] +1: Approve DITA adoption
>> [ ]  0: Abstain
>> [ ] -1: Keeping looking for other options
>>
>> Sorry I forgot to include the voting options above in
>> my first call for a vote.  We need 3 positives for
>> adoption...
>> <snip />
>>  
>>
> Anyone can vote -- you don't have to be a committer.  The docs need to 
> work well for the community as a whole.
>
> -jean
>
>

Re: [vote] Re-vote for Derby docs in DITA

[Jean <jt...@bristowhill.com>]

Jeff Levitt wrote:

>[ ] +1: Approve DITA adoption
>[ ]  0: Abstain
>[ ] -1: Keeping looking for other options
>
>Sorry I forgot to include the voting options above in
>my first call for a vote.  We need 3 positives for
>adoption...
><snip />
>  
>
Anyone can vote -- you don't have to be a committer.  The docs need to 
work well for the community as a whole.

 -jean