ModularModular content refers to the fact that a content component can be thought of as a complete unit in some sense, a module that can be used in many places, much like an interchangeable part in a machine assembly. Building modular documents refers to assembling them from modules (content components). This is also called single sourcing. In DITA, the modules are topics or subtopics included by "topicrefs" (topic references) in DITA Maps or by "conrefs" (content references) in other topics. Kurt Ament says that modular documentation is not possible without standardization (like SGML, XML, DocBook, DITA). He says single sourcing is a methodology, not a technology and modular writing drives the process. If you do not develop modular content, no tool or technology can transform your content into re-usable documentation. History of Modularity The great historian of technical commnications, R. John Brockmann, has researched efforts to document products going back centuries. He finds that some of today's hottest new ideas were present in the work of those creating, documenting, and selling the technology of manufacturing just after the revolutionary war. Brockmann found that modern ideas like modularity were a key part of 18th century technical documents. Documents were as often a set of cards as a book. He also found that early work was very user-centered and task oriented, and that it took advantage of knowledge already available to the user. The earliest explicit reference to modular documentation for modern technical documentation appears to be the Quick Reader Comprehension (QRC) method, reported to the US Navy in July 1961, and already in use at that time for twenty years. References Technical Reports for Quick Reader Comprehension, H.L.Chadbourne, U.S. Navy Electronic Laboratory, Interlaboratory Committee on Editing and Publishing, 1961 Single Sourcing: Building Modular Documentation , by Kurt Ament, William Andrew Publishing, 2003 Up to Glossary of Terms |
