Problem of duplicated content in the the DITA 1.2 spec, review #3 draft

Use this Wiki page to track where content is duplicated or redundant in the DITA 1.2 spec.

Contents

Problem of duplicated content in the the DITA 1.2 spec, review #3 draft

Here is a link back to the main page for review #3

List of comments tagged as "Redundant content"

As best as you can, please try to add comments to this list in the order that they occur in the draft DITA 1.2 spec:

Table tracking content duplication

Section	Topic	Overlapping topics	Comments
Introduction to DITA > Basic concepts	Topics and maps	Markup > DITA topics > DITA topics? Markup > DITA topics > The topic as the basic unit of information? Markup > DITA maps > Definition of DITA maps
	Information typing	Markup > DITA topics > Information typing
	Linking and addressing	Processing > DITA linking Processing > DITA addressing
	Content reuse	Processing > Use by reference Intro to DITA > Linking and addressing
	Interchange and interoperation
	Conditional processing	Processing > Profiling with select attributes
	Separation of content and presentation
	Producing different deliverables from a single source
	DITA document types and modules
DITA Processing	unspecified	Basic concepts	Generic statement about redundant and overlapping content
	Module compatibility and the @domains attribute	DITA processing > Content inclusion
	Navigation behaviors	DITA markup > DITA maps > DITA map attributes
	Linking and Addressing, section "Links within maps"	DITA markup > DITA maps
	Content inclusion, section "Indirect addressing with keys"	DITA addressing > Key-based addressing
	Collation	Language reference > Metadata elements > Indexing group elements > index-sort-as	From Wiki comments, recommendation is to delete this topic and ensure the lang ref topic covers it

Strategies for remediation

2 February 2010: We agreed on the following process:

Authors compile list of review #3 comments that concern overlapping or redundant content for TC meeting on 9 February
A small group of TC members (including Michael Priestley, Jeff Ogden, Robert Anderson, Kris Eberlein, and others yet to volunteer) will decide where content will be located in the DITA 1.2 spec.

2 March 2010: The following people met for 60 minutes and decided where information should be located in the DITA 1.2 spec:

Robert Anderson
Kris Eberlein
Gershon Joseph
Jeff Ogden
Michael Priestley

Tips for amalgamating redundant topics

Identify unique content.
Identify redundant content.
Evaluate the redundant text. What is clearer? Better written? More content rich? Fits better with the tone and purpose of the spec?
Consolidate the content into one topic. Use the topic with the most appropriate information type and file name. Add the contents of both <shortdesc> elements to an <abstract> element.
Remove @rev attributes from the body of the topic and add rev="1.2.3" to the root element of the topic.

Add a draft comment to the body of the topic, for example:

         <draft-comment author="Kristen James Eberlein" rev="7 March 2010">
            This topic is an amalgamation of the following topics:
            <ul>
                <li>infotypes.dita (revision 615)</li>
                <li>information-typing.dita (revision 713)</li>
            </ul>
         </draft-comment>

If you use TortoiseSVN, you can determine revision information easily. From Windows Explorer, right-click the file and then click TortoiseSVN > Show log.

Combine the short descriptions; remove the <abstract> element.
Modify the applicable maps: the parent map and introduction_to_dita.ditamap.