Re: Keel documentation

Ashish,
 
> Yes, I think that the underlying files (chapter.xml, etc) should be 
> renamed too.
> 

I thought so...will do.  Just to give an idea of what I am planning: my first
priority on "Keel-time", is to help MIke test out the new build system since
it will affect the doc.  Next, I'll update HandsOn to match the new build
system, as well as creating new Eclipse howto.  Pnce that gets everybody
going, I'll get back to the manual.  

> Yeah, but that would mean that new targets would have to be added: 
> if we want to do a build of the manual (with translations), they'd 
> manually have to be added (not optimal, IMHO).
>
True.  But let's get the English one going first, then I'll worry about the
other languages :-)  Some just-in-time Ant scripting?
 
> Well, I certainly agree we shouldn't attempt it for now. BTW, I've 
> really got to admire the new build system: it's FANTASTIC!! It beats 
> the pants off any other system (including Maven). It's so good that 
> I'll be stealing ideas off it for my project here ;-)
> 
I'm not sure if you are refering to the new "new build system", but wait till
you see the latest go around.  It just fits like a glove!  I think Maven would
have been good too, had we started there.

> I just wish we had one feature from Maven: the JAR repository. A few 
> weeks ago, I just did a calculation of duplicate JARs on the full 
> CVS checkout, and it would have shaved off ~18MB off. Maybe we 
> should look into that sometime later...
> 
This is one of the good and bad parts of Keel.  The good thing is you have all
the JARs you need, the bad thing is duplicates and heft.  

I'd like to see Aleks' Maven setup.  One of the problems of multi-project
support in Maven, unless it changed recently, is that the dependencies are not
inherited.  For us, dependencies are layered through the keel-* modules, in
Ant we simply say, in effect, */lib/*.jar.  To use Maven, you'll have to
repeat explicit JAR dependencies for each and every clnt-*, svc-*, app-*.  If
you added a new Avalon JAR or changed version in keel-*/lib, every project.xml
in every Keel module would change, wouldn't it?

I think, though, otherwise Maven setup is useful for the final build of a
user's app, even though every time Keel's internals changes, the apps
dependencies would need to be changed.

> BTW, I've updated the Keel Manual page to contain links to the 
> various chapters. http://66.105.113.115/vqwiki-2.3.5/jsp/Wiki?KeelManual
> 
> I feel that we should produce points on the wiki, discuss them and 
> then finally make the transition to the actual DocBook XML. I have 
> no idea if the "ATTACH" functionality of the wiki works, but maybe 
> we could upload drafts there (for those of us who don't have commit 
> access).
>

Thanks, I think it is a good idea.  I don't think I'll get a chance for a week
to get to the docs, but after that I'll start collecting all the pieces.  In
the meantime, if anybody wants to have a whack, great!
 
> Regarding the chapter outline, I'd like to see the following as a template:
> 
> [Goal: What this chapter is supposed to do]
> 
> [ ... ]
>
The devil is in the dots :-)

Shash