Re: Lampadas development plans

[David Merrill <david lupercalia net>]

On Mon, Jul 15, 2002 at 09:16:08PM -0500, Eric Baudais wrote:
> On Mon, 2002-07-15 at 09:49, David Merrill wrote:
> > Reading information about files from CVS I can handle in the first
> > release. I can show logs, history, commits, anything that can be
> > pulled from cvs. That's all very easy to do.
> 
> That is essentially what we want.  We would like Lampadas to be smart
> with CVS and automatically update the last date the documentation in CVS
> was changed.  This data would be put directly into the database.

That's the idea. I'll have an implementation for you to look at by the
end of the week if I can. If you want to go ahead and give me a
list of specific things you want me to extract, go ahead and I'll do
them.

I also extract document meta-data into the database directly for
DocBook and LinuxDoc. Are *all* your documents DocBook XML right now?

I think I will try to make the cvs commands configurable, so you can
provide your own specific cvs commands and customize the output. That
will be a general-purpose solution and be much more flexible. I always
try to write general solutions when I can, so it can be modified in
the data rather than the code.

> > Then, you will be able to commit your changes into the CVS tree, again
> > right through the web. This will also depend on how you configure
> > permissions. The alternative is to have an admin review changes before
> > committing them to the CVS tree.
> 
> The changes need to pass through xmllint first to check the validity of
> the document before committing to CVS.

Yep, I'm planning to do that. And also provide a quick "preview".

> > So, the plan is to work out with you and the LDP what features are not
> > yet included, and have them coded by the end of the month, so we can
> > freeze code and prepare for a 1.0 about a month later. I believe I
> > have all functionality the LDP requires already in place, so I'll be
> > putting my attention towards Gnome now.
> 
> There is one more major feature we want in Lampadas.  The feature is a
> query tool.  This tool should be able to search on the author,
> maintainer, contributor, date updated, status, writing, accuracy, if a
> maintainer is needed, type, and string.  The other feature is 

I have the query API started, and working for only a few fields. The
various lists (pending docs, by type, etc.) are all using that
interface. I need to expand it to allow full-text, and add an
interface for the user to specify it rather than code. But the basic
structure is there and only needs to be extended.

My plan is to allow searching on most or all of the OMF fields.
Similar to the form on the OMF web page, but hopefully a bit nicer
looking.

> > This week I'll add the Gnome category system and Gnome apps list. When
> > it is ready for you to review, I'll let you know. Until then, you can
> > follow the progress on http://demo.lampadas.org as always.

I will put these three items on the top of my TODO list and have
something for you to see this week. It might take me all week, but I
think I can complete them all this week. I'll give it a go, anyway.

> Thanks for your work on Lampadas.  I think it will be a nice system once
> it is released.

You're welcome, and thanks. I think so too.

What format do you have your meta-data in now? Can you give me data in
any tabular format so I can script it into the database, or will it
all have to be manually entered? I mean a list of documents and users,
not document meta-data, which I can extract.

-- 
David C. Merrill                         http://www.lupercalia.net
Linux Documentation Project                   david lupercalia net
Lead Developer                                 http://www.tldp.org


When law and duty are one, united by religion, you never become fully
conscious, fully aware of yourself. You are always a little less than an
individual.
	-- from "Muad'Dib: Ninety-Nine Wonders of the Universe"
	by the Princess Irulan