[Clfs-dev] Attempting to simplify CLFS's XML code

[Chris Staub]

Currently the XML source of the CLFS book consists of a number of .xml 
files in different directories for different architectures. For example, 
in the "final-system" section there is a "common" directory for package 
information common to all archs, then most packages also have another 
.xml file in a "multilib" and/or "64" directory for 64-bit builds, and 
there may be additional files for other archs (such as mips64, or ppc) 
for some packages. This can make it a pain to do even a single line 
update to 1 package, because it also requires checking any other 
arch-specific files for that package and adding an xinclude, and making 
sure it's in the right place, and possibly rearranging the os=[x] 
references in every file.

A few years ago, Joe Ciccone started work on a "simp" branch of the CLFS 
book with the goal of simplifying the XML code, so that all information 
for a given package, with instructions for all archs, can be put in a 
single file. There is some info on this in the Trac ticket here - 
http://trac.cross-lfs.org/ticket/923 - and in his message to mailing 
list describing the project - 
http://lists.cross-lfs.org/pipermail/clfs-dev-cross-lfs.org/2011-April/000942.html. 
For the most part, it seems to work pretty well, but a problem I found 
is that when I use the new schema from the simp branch, there are 
several XML tags that are not recognized and do not have any equivalent 
there. Also, I don't really know much about XML/XSL, so I don't know if 
there are other, less obvious issues that I haven't seen (and I wouldn't 
be surprised if there were as Joe apparently never quite finished work 
on that branch).

We would appreciate any kind of assistance/testing with the "simp" 
branch (or any similar improvement, if someone wants to suggest a 
different implementation altogether), from anyone who might be able to 
help with XML/XSL/Docbook code.

Thanks,
Chris