Meeting minutes 2017 05 04

Attendance: George Bina, Radu Coravu, Kris Eberlein, Robert Anderson, Bill Gamboa, Roger Sheen, Leif Erickson,

Item 1: Any updates about prior releases?

2.4.6 is out; expected to be last patch to 2.4, have lately been putting fixes into 2.5.

Item 2: DITA-OT Development status and updates

2.5: Target remains end of this month.

Robert has been adding in several fixes / pull requests:

• DITAVAL list - specify a list of DITAVAL files with --filter parameter
• alternate property for render directory - waiting for merge
• Working on up-and-over problems (images)
• Also reviewed pull request for improved Troubleshooting support, but not sure if can be cleaned up in time for 2.5

Docs:

• Need to get some draft info in place for Java API, for changes to preprocess. Still need to do that.
• Jarno made some changes for PDF2 code - need to verify that those are landing in 2.5 (the fully legacy PDF plugin plan, or something smaller?), and get them documented. Leigh's book already describes the changes - links to legacy PDF.

Item 3: Doc updates and plans, update on documentation call

Open issues from past:

• Better way to share parameter descriptions for html5, xhtml? For 2.5 will probably just go for pragmatic description to make it work, maybe something more elegant for 3.0.
• Long-time backlog item: indexing the topics? has been a topic in doc meetings, assigned to Roger's students but need to review results / review with doc team.

Item 4: DITA-OT day

What are our plans, any themes developing?

No progress on agenda yet, but really need to get working. George/Radu currently doing a conference circuit - expect to get to work after return. Would like call-for-proposals this month. Have had several people ask about that - somebody asked Roger, somebody else asked Robert.

Currently have 13 people registered, despite not having any agenda yet.

Person asking Roger has some plugins they'd like to talk about. Seems like a really good theme for at least a part of the day: what plugins have you developed / given away that you think others would be interested in?

Eliot requests update on preprocess, changing extension points. That seems very likely.

Kris suggests session on accessibility. Robert really supports this, has had to report on this in the past for internal purposes so could either do a session or contribute to one. In particular, there is common mis-information about accessibility support coming out of some DITA 1.3 changes, it would be good to address that.

Item 5: Other topics

Kris suggests regular agenda item: long term planning for DITA-OT. Not just funding, but overall sustainability of the project. Contributions don't have to be monetary.

Item 6: Backlog discussion

Time to go through pull requests, issues tracker, determine how to handle open issues.