#11 Need method for keeping language spec up to date
The SDL specification we have on-line
(http://www.vestasys.org/doc/sdl-spec/) is really just
an appendix of the book-length research report pushed
through latex2html and cleaned up a little. I've made
a few very minor edits to the resulting HTML over time,
but this doesn't seem like a good idea.
There will inevitably be changes over time to the
implementation which should be reflected in that
document. One example is the change earlier this year
which makes tool invocations search ./envVars/PATH if
the command name is a relative path and isn't found in
the tool working directory. Another example is any
proposed new primitive functions, such as the "_findre"
primitive Scott Venier's done some work on.
To make matters worse, I think only a few of the former
SRC people (probably at least Roy and Tim) have a copy
of the LaTeX source for the book, and I think we'd have
to ask one of them to push it through latex2html to get
an updated copy of what we have on the web site.
It would be ideal if we could get the source document
checked into Vesta and have the document on the web
site produced by a Vesta build.
SDL spec appendix from 2004-11-04 draft of Vesta book
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We are getting close to sending the final book text to the
publisher. Right now Roy is having the other authors read a
draft and send him one final round of suggested changes.
We're partway through that and should be done in a matter of
weeks.
So if there are any changes that should go into the book
version that we don't have yet, now is the time to push them
in Roy's direction. I'll attach the current draft of the
appendix to this bug (as Roy sent it around for us to
comment on), to make it easier to see what may not be there yet.
Anything that's still in flux probably shouldn't go into the
book, especially if it's just an addition rather than a change.
After the book is put to bed, let's grab the final book
version of the appendix and check it in to the repository.
Then let's pull enough of the other macros out of the LaTeX
goo that builds the book that we can build just the SDL
chapter as a standalone document that goes through
latex2html cleanly. Let's keep them in a separate file so
that if there is ever a second edition of the book, there is
some chance we can drop the updated version of the SDL spec
into it without change.