collaborative editing

[Jeremy Jones]

Robert Kern wrote:

> Michele Simionato wrote:
>
>> Suppose I want to write a book with many authors via the Web. The 
>> book has a hierarchical structure with chapter, sections, 
>> subsections, subsubsections, etc. At each moment it must be possible 
>> to print the current version of the book in PDF format. There must be 
>> automatic generation of the table of contents,
>> indices, etc. Conversions to many formats (Latex, DocBook, etc.) 
>> would be
>> welcome. Does something like that already exists? Alternatively, I 
>> would need
>> some hierarchical Wiki with the ability of printing its contents in an
>> structured way. 
>
>
> Does it have to be via the Web? Why doesn't LaTeX/DocBook with a 
> central CVS/Subversion repository work for what you want to do?
>
> Personally, I loathe writing at any length inside a Web browser and 
> prefer to use a real editor at all times.
>
Actually, in a sense, if you put up a SVN repository under Apache, the 
repository is available "via the Web" just as the OP requires.  He'll 
have to specify further, but I'm not so sure this is a requirement to be 
able to edit via a browser over the web, or just have the repository on 
the web somewhere that multiple people can access it.

But SVN will work pretty well, I think, for what you're doing.  
Especially if the authors are editing different sections of the file.  
If two (or more) authors try to edit the same section of file, the first 
one to commit the change will "win" and any subsequent commits will not 
be able to commit the change until the resolve the conflict.

Jeremy Jones