[CLUE-Tech] CVS for Windows

[Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier]

On Sat, 30 Jun 2001, ian wrote:

> On Sat, Jun 30, 2001 at 12:59:30PM -0600, Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier wrote:
> > On Sat, 30 Jun 2001, Kevin Cullis wrote:
> > 
> > > Hi all,
> > > 
> > > I'm working on establishing a document control system for a group I'm
> > > involved with and it has been suggested that CVS would work. I'm the
> > > only Linux person and the rest are windows, do any of you have
> > > suggestions to what to use?
> > 
> > What format is the documentation going to be in? 
> 
> Doesn't really matter to most document management systems.  

Um, as you mention below, it does matter if you're using Word or other
binary formats - which I have a feeling is the case, since Kevin 
mentioned they were all on Windows.

> > Unfortunately, I don't know of any good document control systems.
> > CVS might be the closest, but it really isn't meant for documentation.
> > It's a tool that programmers generally like and writers (at least
> > the ones I've talked to...) generally hate. 
> 
> Documentum, LiveLink are some commercial document management systems.  
> 
> > What features are you looking for? I mean, are you looking for something
> > just to hold & catalog documents or do you need to do diffs on the
> > files and be able to "roll back" files? Will multiple authors
> > be working on the same document, or will a lot of authors be 
> > contributing their own documents? 
> 
> The problem you run into using document managment systems is unless they
> have a Word add-on then they can't handle mergeing of any kind since DOC 
> is a Binary format.  I did some work with Livelink and it pretty much is
> a warehouse that holds fully copies of every version.  That is how you 
> "rollback".  There isn't any capability to merge or diff effectively in
> these kinds of documents.  As for multiple authors... Good luck.
> These multiple authors should be coordinating what they are doing.

Right...that's why I mentioned the format...it's pretty much going
to be a problem unless they're using DocBook, LaTeX, Texinfo or
a format that is stored in plain-text. 

As much as I hate Microsoft products, Word's revision features are
pretty good. Despite the fact that I turn everything in to my
publishers in DocBook or RTF, it always comes back in .doc and 
I have to trudge through it in StarOffice...Anyway, there are
usually multiple parties involved who usually handle the 
document sequentially - but I've been involved in a few projects
with multiple authors where it'd be very convenient if more
than one party could work on a chapter or document at the same
time.

If anyone turns up a good document system (Free Software) on
Linux I'd love to hear about it. 

Take care,

Zonker
--
Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier -=- jbrockmeier at earthlink.net
http://www.DissociatedPress.net/
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