TIP 13: Web Service for Drafting and Archiving TIPs

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Bounty program for improvements to Tcl and certain Tcl packages.
Author:         Don Porter <dgp@users.sourceforge.net>
Author:         Donal K. Fellows <fellowsd@cs.man.ac.uk>
State:          Accepted
Type:           Process
Vote:           Done
Created:        21-Nov-2000
Post-History:   

Abstract

This document proposes the TCT provide a service on the World Wide Web for drafting and archiving TIPs and for providing TIPs in a variety of formats. A reference implementation is provided, and its server requirements are outlined.

Background

It has been proposed (see [2]) that the TCT manage its projects and procedures through a set of public documents known as Tcl Improvement Proposals, or TIPs. A format for TIPs has been approved (see [3]), and although final approval of [2] is still pending, several TIPs have been submitted, discussed, and revised, and a few have been approved, so acceptance of TIPs in some form seems likely.

A prototype system has been provided by Donal Fellows fellowsd@cs.man.ac.uk http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/fellowsd-bin/TIP/ that delivers TIPs to visitors in a variety of formats. However, that system lacks archiving of each revision of each TIP, and offers no interface (through the web or otherwise) for making revisions to TIPs.

The TIP format was inspired by the format used by the Tcl'ers Wiki http://www.purl.org/thecliff/tcl/wiki/ . The true power of the Tcl'ers Wiki, though, is not in the particular format it uses, but in the fact that it empowers the whole Tcl community to contribute to a common set of resources. The Tcl'ers Wiki shows that valuable resources can arise out of the unrestricted efforts of volunteers from the community.

Problems with Current TIP Infrastructure.

The Fellows web interface to the TIP Document Collection http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/fellowsd-bin/TIP/ offers valuable browsing access to TIPs in a variety of formats. It accomplishes the important goal of making TIPs public. However, it suffers from two significant shortcomings:

  • Revisions are only possible through the TIP Editor:

    Currently the only way to revise a TIP is to e-mail a new revision to the TIP Editor and wait for it to replace the old revision. As more TIPs are submitted, and as each TIP is more frequently revised, this bottleneck will not be tolerable.

    Discussion about TIPs currently takes place in Usenet newsgroups and on mailing lists, but because there is no easy access to revising the TIPs themselves, the new information and viewpoints arising in these discussions are not being folded back into the TIPs. This means the TIPs are failing in their intended role to present a full history of an issue to later readers. It also means newcomers to a TIP cannot receive a full briefing in one place, but must chase down discussions in mailing list and Usenet archives. Few people do that, but instead repeat points already made. The discussions about [6] reflect this problem.

  • An archive of each revision of each TIP is not maintained:

    Although [2] refers to TIPs as being stored in a revision control system, probably a CVS repository, the Fellows TIP collection is not maintained in such a system. Since a TIP is an archive of a public discussion of an issue, it is important to be able to access the history of changes to each TIP.

    The ability to retrieve and restore earlier revisions of a TIP will be especially important if public revision is permitted, so that any TIP contents that are incorrectly removed, whether by accident or malice, can be restored.

Proposal

An improved system for archiving and revising TIPs is proposed:

  1. TIPs will be archived in a CVS repository.

  2. Anyone with the power to call a TYANNOTT vote will have commit access to this repository through either :pserver: or ssh access. With this access, they will be able to revise any part (header or body) of any TIP (whether in State: Draft or not). Everyone having this access will be trusted to modify TIPs only in conformance with the TIP format and the TCT procedures.

  3. An enhanced version of the Fellows TIP rendering engine will display an [Edit] link at the bottom of each TIP eligible for web-editing when that TIP is rendered in HTML.

  4. For any TIP in state Draft, and for which a vote is still pending, the [Edit] link will lead to an HTML form for submitting a revised TIP. For other TIPs, no [Edit] link will appear, and an attempt to directly access web-editing of such a TIP will lead to a message stating that the TIP may not be edited through the web interface.

  5. The HTML editing form will display the TIP header, but will not make it available for editing. The HTML form will require that an e-mail address be entered, and will allow a name to be entered as well. A