[cellml-discussion] Proof of concept: using git for specification development

[Andrew Miller]

Hi all,

As a proof of concept, I have set up an unofficial CellML specification 
git at http://repo.or.cz/w/cellml-draft-miller.git . This repository is 
intended to show the concept of using a distributed revision control 
tool to work on specification development, and not to suggest that this 
is necessarily the type of technology which will be used for the actual 
specification development.

I have used DocBook as the source format in this repository based on the 
preliminary consensus on the CellML discussion mailing list - again, 
this is not intended to suggest that DocBook will be the final format 
used for specification development, but to show the concept, as one 
format or another needs to be chosen even at he proof-of-concept stage.

git clone git://repo.or.cz/cellml-draft-miller.git andrews-spec-version
cd andrews-spec-version
git checkout -b normative remotes/origin/normative

You now have a local repository of my unofficial draft version of the 
specification. You can make and commit your own changes locally, and 
potentially push them to your own publicly visible repository (which 
would allow me, or someone else to pull the changes into my version). 
This makes it easy for everyone to keep their own draft versions, and 
merge in changes that they agree with from others. We could eventually 
set up an official git where changes which become widely accepted are 
pushed, and to provide a starting point for people wanting to propose 
additional changes.

BTW on my system, I can generate the HTML output using:
   xsltproc --xinclude --param section.autolabel 1 
/usr/share/xml/docbook/stylesheet/nwalsh/xhtml/docbook.xsl toplevel.xml 
 >toplevel.xhtml

The exact command you should use will depend on where things are 
installed on your system.

Best regards,
Andrew