Recorded on June 29, 2023 


In recent years the software industry has seen a rising trend towards lightweight documentation on the side of SMEs. While this may work on a small scale, it may get tricky when there is a need to interact with more corporate documentation environments. Bridging the gap between markup and markdown can present challenges not only on the technical level. So-called static site generators (SSG) are often used to bring Markdown content to the audience, focusing on speed, layout and ease of use, but they lack productivity features that are baked into DITA right away and essential to technical documentation. Enter a scenario in which you need to pull markup-agnostic content contributors to the other side and learn how Lightweight DITA might help you to foster collaboration instead of deepening competition. Let us see how far a walk with Hugo, a very popular SSG, can take us in this scenario and discuss the implications of a fragmenting corporate documentation landscape.

 

Presented by Frank Wegmann

Frank Wegmann has 20+ years of experience in the markup world. Rooted in multilingual university research projects using SGML and XML, he has been advancing custom automated build systems for technical documentation at Software AG since 2001. In recent years the original focus shifted to DITA, and, inevitably, also Markdown. He is a regular speaker at international conferences and engaged in OASIS DITA committees, where he now also acts as co-chair of the Lightweight DITA subcommittee.