README.txt for DITAinformationcenter(TM) distribution

Fifth Edition: June 30, 2010
Authors: Anna van Raaphorst and Richard (Dick) Johnson

This edition of the DITAinformationcenter supports and includes 
release 1.5.1 of DITA Open Toolkit, which supports the 
DITA 1.2 language standard (not yet approved).

Copyright 2006-2010 VR Communications, Inc. (www.vrcommunications.com). 
All rights reserved.

The DITAinformationcenter is a comprehensive information and prototyping
package for DITA and the DITA Open Toolkit. It is also a product of the
architecture and the recommended best practices, having been produced
entirely in DITA XML using the principles and procedures described
in the documentatation.

We provide the DITAinformationcenter on as as-is basis, without warranties 
or conditions of any kind, either express or implied.

The DITAinformationcenter consists of multiple components:
- A set of published documentation about DITA and the DITA Open Toolkit
- Source files for several model DITA projects
- A code distribution for processing DITA souce files to various
output targets (PDF, XHTML, HTML Help, and Eclipse help)

Portions of the documentation were previously published and licensed
through a Common Public License (CPL) granted by OASIS (Organization
for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) under the name
DITA Open Toolkit User Guide.

Download locations:
- www.vrcommunications.com/resources.htm
- www.xmldocs.info

The code distribution package contains:
- DITA Open Toolkit 1.5.1 (the final build)
- PHP interpreter 5.1.4
- PHP debugging and reporting tools: ditaauthors, ditadebug, 
ditaedit, ditaids, ditakeys, ditalinks, and ditapreview
- Python repair tool: ditarepair

The only prerequisite software for using the DITAinformationcenter 
code distribution is the Java Runtime Environment (JRE), 
a DITA-aware editor or plain text editor, 
and (if you plan to use the DITArepair Python program) 
the 3.0 or 3.1 version of the Python interpreter.

To download and install this distribution package on a Microsoft Windows system:

1.Right-click and save the .msi executable in a directory of your choice. 

DO NOT install the files in the Program Files directory or 
any other directory that has a space in its name.

2. Double-click the DITAinformationcenter .msi to start the installation process.

3. Follow instructions as the process progresses.
 
4. When you receive notification that the installation process is complete, 
check that a new directory tree has been created in the directory location 
you specified and check that a DITAinformationcenter icon (penguin) 
has been created on your desktop.

5. If you plan to process and edit the garage and grocery shopping samples 
according to the instructions in the Topics and Maps sections of the
DITAinformationcenter documentation, first download the files and then 
double-click the DITAinformationcenter icon (penguin) on your desktop 
to open the customized command prompt. Then navigate to the 
DITAinformationcenter_GARAGESOURCE or DITAinformationcenter_GROCERYSOURCE 
directory, and kick off the build using the runbuild command.

NOTE: Because the original garage and grocery shopping sample files 
may be overwritten when you edit or process them, 
we strongly recommend backing up the garage and grocery shopping sample files 
(the entire project_samples directory) to a safe location 
outside the DITAinformationcenter directory.

6. If the DITAinformationcenter published documents would be useful to you 
as an information source, download one or more of those files 
from one of the download sites.

7. If the DITAinformationcenter source files would be useful to you 
as a model project, download and unzip those files to your C: 
root directory, as well.
 
The DITAinformationcenter documentation contains additional information 
about processing, troubleshooting, creating DITA topics, and creating DITA maps.