normalized DITA output adding invalid "specializations" attribute

[Peter Washburn]

I have been trying to create normalized DITA outputs using DITA-OT and the command "dita --input=sample concept.dita --format=dita", but I keep finding that the output files contain a "specializations" attribute which is not defined in the DITA schema prior to dita 2.0, and fails validation on every tool I try to use with it. 

Is there a way to tell DITA-OT to target a specific DITA version when producing normalized dita? I have not been able to find a way to specify this in the DITA-OT documentation.

Is the "specializations" attribute meant to be valid DITA prior to 2.0?

I've attached a simplified example to show the behavior. It is repeatable on versions of DITA-OT going back to 3.5.0

The normalized version, which should be valid dita, is not accepted as valid dita by even DITA-OT itself.

I am confused as to whether this represents a bug, or if I am misunderstanding something about the goals of normalized dita.

If anyone has any insights to provide, I would be much obliged.

Many thanks....

[Chris Papademetrious]

Hi Peter,

Funny that you posted this, I just ran into the same issue myself.

And maybe this behavior has always been there, but I noticed that our RelaxNG topic schema references:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<?xml-model href="com:synopsys:docshell:snpsRefSecShell.rng" schematypens="http://relaxng.org/ns/structure/1.0"?>
<reference-section id="set_zip_waveform">
  <title>set zip_waveform</title>

were converted to DTD schema references, which we don't have/use:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><?path2rootmap-uri ../../?><?xml-model href="com:synopsys:docshell:snpsRefSecShell.rng" schematypens="http://relaxng.org/ns/structure/1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE reference-section
  PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Reference-section//EN" "reference-section.dtd">
<reference-section id="ST1020367122" specializations="@base/paginate @base/snpsatt @base/styles @base/xformat @props/deliveryTarget">
  <title>set zip_waveform</title>

Both of these render the output unusable unless additional post-processing is applied.

 - Chris

[Peter Washburn]

Good to know that it is happening to other people as well. I was thoroughly puzzled because I could find no specification for the "specializations" attribute in either the DTDs or XSDs for DITA 1.1 - 1.3, and DITA 2.0 is still in preview.