Many S1000D users complain understandably about a quite high frequency of S1000D releases. A new version of any standard every five years would be hard to implement, but the S1000D is a highlight here. The community managed to publish two Issues within one-half of a year. These were the S1000D Issue 2.3 (released on February 28, 2007) and the S1000D Issue 3.0 (released on July 31, 2007).
The reasons for such frequent updates and releases are also understandable since they are driven by the requirements of the community using and developing it.
But even for a very short period between updates, each release means a huge step forward in its development in comparison with its predecessor: both in respect to technical novelties, quality of its guidance, and the readability of the specification itself.
The same case is with the S1000D Issue 4.2. Two concepts that progressed prominently in this issue are the business rules and handling of illustrations/multimedia objects.
Both received a new Schema to make their generation, management and exchange smoother and more reliable.
Illustrations and multimedia got an XML Schema/object to capture their metadata. Business rules have now a structure/Schema allowing to markup any type of the business rules documentation.
In my seventh article to Mekon‘s Bitesize on Business Rules, I discuss what you can use the new brdoc Schema for.
Click here to find out more: Bitesize Business Rules: What is the new brdoc Schema in the S1000D® Issue 4.2 is good for?
(Credits: Photograph ©librestock.com under the keywords “document”)