Re: Proposal for augmented structure for PG

On 2013-02-11, Greg Newby wrote:
> Feel free to spin up a separate effort, of course.  However, I am
> still optimistic about the feasibility of the approach I outlined a
> year or so ago (?) of having a user-contributed area, with something
> like a TRAC for variations.

Unfortunately, you would need Marcello on board to make any
progress. Marcello's thing of RST everywhere to be processed by his
software against his stylesheets is pretty much the exact opposite of
what you suggested. Therefore no progress on this line can occur, as has
been demonstrated over the past year.

> Making this scalable is challenging.  Doing it so that minimal changes
> are needed to the existing PG structure is key.  (And, especially, so
> I can't be a bottleneck in the process.  I hate that.)

PG as it stands is a scalability disaster zone. The same five people in
charge of maintaining 40000 books who were in charge of maintaning 5000
books soon to be in charge of maintaining 50000 books. Really? 100
errata reports a month to process, with only one person in the least bit
interested in looking at them, thus an ever increasing backlog that will
never see the light of day, thus errata reporters quickly realising that
it is not worth the effort. What happens when one of those five can no
longer stand it and steps down? Is there anyone who would be fool enough
to join their ranks? What happens if you (Greg) get hit by a bus?

The only scalable solution is a curated multi library approach, in
particular with DP maintaining its own library and DP's PPers taking
responsibility for errata in the work they produce. Hell, DP has all but
got a functioning errata system ready to go, and the likes of Jeroan
have set ups that would make processing errata as simple as could be.
But that will happen over Marcello's cold, dead body, and you can't
afford to lose Marcello either.

But now I'm falling into the old gutvol-d trap of proclaiming the
problems without proposing viable solutions. I don't have a solution
that stands a chance of being implemented, so I am instead looking
towards a solution that may result in me personally having access to
some decent ebooks. It may be that that solution ends up being useful to
PG in the future, it may not. PG will certainly benefit in the meantime
because buried reworks are a damn good place to store data.

Regards

Jon
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