Which is better, FM with DocBook or DITA

[Diane Gaskill]

Hi everyone,

You might remember that a few weeks ago I asked about FM vs AT.  I got some REALLY good information which is now all in a huge spreadsheet that I will make available when it is complete.  Many thanks to all of you who provided all that great information.

Now I have another question, almost as complicated.  Structured FM can work with both OASIS XML standards: DocBook and DITA.  But which one is the better standard to use?  Or does it make any difference?  One of our divisions in Japan has decided on AT with Docbook 4.2 because it is what one of our OEM customers use.  They want us to do the same.  We would rather use FM, but are undecided on which standard to use.

According to Adobe, <http://www.adobe.com/products/framemaker/pdfs/revguide.pdf>
FM 7.2 supports DocBood 4.1 and xDocBook 4.1.2.  Does anyone know if it supports later versions such as 4.2?  I found info on the OASIS website that says the latest verion they support is 4.4, and other information that says there is a least a verion 5.0 of DocBook. 

Thanks everybody!

Diane Gaskill
Hitachi Data Systems