Improving Versioning

Summary

• proposal to address issues with consistent versions of machines
• OSE's core business is actually producing documentation for machines available over a lifetime
• Good about the current situation
  • proven technology, easy-to-use centralized wiki
  • easy to use Google Presentations cloud application for build manuals
• Problems with the current situation
  • wiki unstructured and overwhelming
  • no real versioning in wiki and Google Presentations
  • reliance on volatile, proprietary Google cloud services
  • binary format for Google Presentations prevents proper versioning
• Requirements

1. no major change in current workflow
2. keep the wiki as central point
3. do not rely on the wiki as a central point
4. apply proper versioning reflecting severity of change
5. true consolidation of machines with lifetime releases
6. versioning supporting modularity
7. no reliance on proprietary software/cloud services
8. support textual format as much as possible for universal versioning
9. same ease-of-use as Google Presentations
10. automatic index for machines, modules, projects on the wiki

• Proposal
  • adopt semantic versioning
  • adopt Git with submodules
  • create lifetime releases with Zenodo or IPFS
  • automatically generate wiki pages, build manuals from Git repositories
  • find a way to use a textual format as an easy-to-use replacement for Google Presentations
• Concrete steps
  • Investigate the above in the Hamburg STEAM Camp