[CLUE-Tech] CVS for Windows

[ian]

On Sat, Jun 30, 2001 at 07:21:20PM -0600, Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier wrote:
> 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.

Actually it doesn't.. I didn't quite explain myself enough.  These document
management systems don't have Word Add-ins.  As such they don't track
differences.  When you commit your latest copy (as in LiveLink) it simply
saves that file you upload as the latest version.  No merging, no 
diffs, no anything.  Just a file storage with a version number associated
with it.  If you want to see the differences between version 3 and version
5 you get version 3 out of the system, open it; get verison 5 out of the
system, open it; and manually compare.

The reason is simple with a binary or even structured text format (ie. 
HTML or SGML).  Unless the document management system either has 
(a) a template form that you follow and only put in info where it tells you
or (b) an understanding of the structuring of the document, the doc manage
system can't tell the difference between you bolding a sentence and 
you changing the wording.  Both are significant enough changes to 
making diffing either impossible or worthless.
 

> > > 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.

However the revision feature is hard to manage from an IT perspective.
It works well with a very highly controlled environment.  Its great for
you, bob and john to work on it but not unless that is setup and 
organized ahead of time.

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

Me too.  I also would love to hear the limitations and assumptions of
the system.

ian