[svnbook commit] r3066 - trunk/src/en/book
fitz
noreply at red-bean.com
Mon May 5 23:43:36 CDT 2008
Author: fitz
Date: Mon May 5 23:43:36 2008
New Revision: 3066
Log:
Copyedits for Preface.
* src/en/book/ch00-preface.xml: Copy. Edit. Copyedit.
Modified:
trunk/src/en/book/ch00-preface.xml
Modified: trunk/src/en/book/ch00-preface.xml
==============================================================================
--- trunk/src/en/book/ch00-preface.xml (original)
+++ trunk/src/en/book/ch00-preface.xml Mon May 5 23:43:36 2008
@@ -15,35 +15,35 @@
<primary>Concurrent Versions System (CVS)</primary>
</indexterm>
- In the world of open-source software, the Concurrent Versions
+ In the world of open source software, the Concurrent Versions
System (CVS) was the tool of choice for version control for many
- years. And rightly so. CVS was open-source software itself, and
- its non-restrictive modus operandi and support for networked
+ years. And rightly so. CVS was open source software itself, and
+ its nonrestrictive modus operandi and support for networked
operation allowed dozens of geographically dispersed programmers
to share their work. It fit the collaborative nature of the
- open-source world very well. CVS and its semi-chaotic development
- model have since become cornerstones of open-source
+ opensource world very well. CVS and its semi-chaotic development
+ model have since become cornerstones of open source
culture.</para>
<para>But CVS was not without its flaws, and simply fixing those
flaws promised to be an enormous effort. Enter Subversion.
Designed to be a successor to CVS, Subversion's originators set
out to win the hearts of CVS users in two ways—by creating
- an open-source system with a design (and <quote>look and
+ an open source system with a design (and <quote>look and
feel</quote>) similar to CVS, and by attempting to avoid most of
CVS's noticeable flaws. While the result isn't necessarily the
next great evolution in version control design, Subversion
<emphasis>is</emphasis> very powerful, very usable, and very
- flexible. And for the most part, almost all newly-started
- open-source projects now choose Subversion instead of CVS.</para>
+ flexible. And for the most part, almost all newly started
+ open source projects now choose Subversion instead of CVS.</para>
<para>This book is written to document the 1.5 series of the
Subversion version control system. We have made every attempt to
be thorough in our coverage. However, Subversion has a thriving
and energetic development community, so there are already a number
- of features and improvements planned for future versions of
- Subversion that may change some of the commands and specific notes
- in this book.</para>
+ of features and improvements planned for future versions that may
+ change some of the commands and specific notes in this
+ book.</para>
<!-- ================================================================= -->
@@ -56,15 +56,15 @@
<para>This book is written for computer-literate folk who want to
use Subversion to manage their data. While Subversion runs on a
number of different operating systems, its primary user
- interface is command-line based. That command-line tool
+ interface is command-line-based. That command-line tool
(<command>svn</command>), and some auxiliary programs, are the
focus of this book.</para>
- <para>For consistency, the examples in this book assume the reader
+ <para>For consistency, the examples in this book assume that the reader
is using a Unix-like operating system and is relatively comfortable
with Unix and command-line interfaces. That said, the
<command>svn</command> program also runs on non-Unix platforms
- like Microsoft Windows. With a few minor exceptions, such as
+ such as Microsoft Windows. With a few minor exceptions, such as
the use of backward slashes (<literal>\</literal>) instead of
forward slashes (<literal>/</literal>) for path separators, the
input to and output from this tool when run on Windows are
@@ -82,14 +82,14 @@
reader has never used a version control system, we've also tried
to make it easy for users of CVS (and other systems) to make a
painless leap into Subversion. Special sidebars may mention
- other version control systems from time to time, and a special
- appendix summarizes many of the differences between CVS and
+ other version control systems from time to time, and Appendix B
+ summarizes many of the differences between CVS and
Subversion.</para>
<para>Note also that the source code examples used throughout the
book are only examples. While they will compile with the proper
compiler incantations, they are intended to illustrate a
- particular scenario, not necessarily serve as examples of good
+ particular scenario and not necessarily serve as examples of good
programming style or practices.</para>
</sect1>
@@ -98,15 +98,15 @@
<!-- ================================================================= -->
<!-- ================================================================= -->
<sect1 id="svn.preface.howread">
- <title>How to Read this Book</title>
+ <title>How to Read This Book</title>
<para>Technical books always face a certain dilemma: whether to
cater to <firstterm>top-down</firstterm>
- or <firstterm>bottom-up</firstterm> learners. A top-down
+ or to <firstterm>bottom-up</firstterm> learners. A top-down
learner prefers to read or skim documentation, getting a large
overview of how the system works; only then does she actually
start using the software. A bottom-learner is a <quote>learn by
- doing</quote> person, someone who just wants to dive into the
+ doing</quote> personmdash;someone who just wants to dive into the
software and figure it out as she goes, referring to book
sections when necessary. Most books tend to be written for one
type of person or the other, and this book is undoubtedly biased
@@ -114,14 +114,14 @@
section, you're probably already a top-down learner yourself!)
However, if you're a bottom-up person, don't despair. While the
book may be laid out as a broad survey of Subversion topics, the
- contents of each section tends to be heavy with specific
+ content of each section tends to be heavy with specific
examples that you can try-by-doing. For the impatient folks who
just want to get going, you can jump right to
<xref linkend="svn.intro"/>.</para>
<para>Regardless of your learning style, this book aims to be
useful to people of widely different backgrounds—from
- people with no previous experience in version control to
+ those with no previous experience in version control to
experienced system administrators. Depending on your own
background, certain chapters may be more or less important to
you. The following can be considered a
@@ -133,7 +133,7 @@
<term>Experienced System Administrators</term>
<listitem>
<para>The assumption here is that you've probably used
- version control before before, and are dying to get a
+ version control before and are dying to get a
Subversion server up and running ASAP.
<xref linkend="svn.reposadmin"/> and
<xref linkend="svn.serverconfig"/> will show you how to
@@ -163,13 +163,13 @@
<para>Whether you're a user or administrator, eventually
your project will grow larger. You're going to want to
learn how to do more advanced things with Subversion, such
- as how to use branches and perform merges (<xref
- linkend="svn.branchmerge"/>), how to use Subversion's
- property support (<xref linkend="svn.advanced"/>), how to
- configure runtime options (<xref
- linkend="svn.customization"/>), and other things. These
- chapters aren't critical at first, but be sure to read
- them once you're comfortable with the basics.</para>
+ as how to use Subversion's property support
+ (<xref linkend="svn.advanced"/>), how to use branches and
+ perform merges (<xref linkend="svn.branchmerge"/>), how to
+ configure runtime options
+ (<xref linkend="svn.customization"/>), and other things.
+ These chapters aren't critical at first, but be sure to
+ read them once you're comfortable with the basics.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
@@ -204,6 +204,9 @@
<!-- =============================================================== -->
<sect2 id="svn.preface.conventions.typo">
<title>Typographic Conventions</title>
+
+ <para>The following typographic conventions are used in this
+ book:</para>
<variablelist>
@@ -224,7 +227,8 @@
<varlistentry>
<term><filename>Italic</filename></term>
<listitem>
- <para>Used for file and directory names</para>
+ <para>Used for file and directory names as well as for new
+ terms</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
@@ -234,7 +238,7 @@
<!-- =============================================================== -->
<sect2 id="svn.preface.conventions.icons">
- <title>Icons</title>
+ <title>Tips and Warnings</title>
<note>
<para>This icon designates a note relating to the surrounding
@@ -323,7 +327,7 @@
<term><xref linkend="svn.serverconfig"/></term>
<listitem>
<para>Explains how to configure your Subversion server and
- different ways to access your repository:
+ offers different ways to access your repository:
<literal>HTTP</literal>, the <literal>svn</literal>
protocol, and local disk access. It also covers the details
of authentication, authorization and anonymous
@@ -380,7 +384,7 @@
using CVS. Included are descriptions of Subversion
revision numbers, versioned directories, offline
operations, <command>update</command>
- vs. <command>status</command>, branches, tags, metadata,
+ versus <command>status</command>, branches, tags, metadata,
conflict resolution, and authentication.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
@@ -388,12 +392,20 @@
<varlistentry>
<term><xref linkend="svn.webdav"/></term>
<listitem>
- <para>Describes the details of WebDAV and DeltaV, and how
+ <para>Describes the details of WebDAV and DeltaV and how
you can configure your Subversion repository to be
mounted read/write as a DAV share.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><xref linkend="svn.copyright"/></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>A copy of the Creative Commons Attribution License.,
+ under which this book is licensed.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
</variablelist>
</sect1>
@@ -403,12 +415,12 @@
<!-- ================================================================= -->
<!-- ================================================================= -->
<sect1 id="svn.preface.free">
- <title>This Book is Free</title>
+ <title>This Book Is Free</title>
<para>This book started out as bits of documentation written by
Subversion project developers, which were then coalesced into a
single work and rewritten. As such, it has always been under a
- free license. (See <xref linkend="svn.copyright"/>.) In fact,
+ free license (see <xref linkend="svn.copyright"/>). In fact,
the book was written in the public eye, originally as a part of
Subversion project itself. This means two things:</para>
@@ -450,10 +462,10 @@
<para>This book would not be possible (nor very useful) if
Subversion did not exist. For that, the authors would like to
thank Brian Behlendorf and CollabNet for the vision to fund such
- a risky and ambitious new Open Source project; Jim Blandy for
+ a risky and ambitious new open source project; Jim Blandy for
the original Subversion name and design—we love you, Jim;
- Karl Fogel for being such a good friend and a great community
- leader, in that order.
+ and Karl Fogel for being such a good friend and a great
+ community leader, in that order.
<footnote>
<para>Oh, and thanks, Karl, for being too overworked to write
this book yourself.</para>
@@ -461,10 +473,10 @@
</para>
<para>Thanks to O'Reilly and our editors, Linda Mui and Tatiana
- Diaz for their patience and support.</para>
+ Apandi, for their patience and support.</para>
<para>Finally, we thank the countless people who contributed to
- this book with informal reviews, suggestions, and fixes: While
+ this book with informal reviews, suggestions, and fixes. While
this is undoubtedly not a complete list, this book would be
incomplete and incorrect without the help of: David Anderson,
Jani Averbach, Ryan Barrett, Francois Beausoleil, Jennifer
@@ -493,7 +505,7 @@
<title>From Ben Collins-Sussman</title>
<para>Thanks to my wife Frances, who, for many months, got to
- hear, <quote>But honey, I'm still working on the book</quote>,
+ hear, <quote>But honey, I'm still working on the book,</quote>
rather than the usual, <quote>But honey, I'm still doing
email.</quote> I don't know where she gets all that patience!
She's my perfect counterbalance.</para>
@@ -507,7 +519,7 @@
<para>Thanks to all my close friends, who make me a rich, rich man.
Don't look at me that way—you know who you are.</para>
- <para>Thanks to my parents for the perfect low-level formatting,
+ <para>Thanks to my parents for the perfect low-level formatting
and being unbelievable role models. Thanks to my son for the
opportunity to pass that on.</para>
@@ -521,7 +533,7 @@
<para>Huge thanks to my wife Marie for being incredibly
understanding, supportive, and most of all, patient. Thank
- you to my brother Eric who first introduced me to UNIX
+ you to my brother Eric who first introduced me to Unix
programming way back when. Thanks to my Mom and Grandmother
for all their support, not to mention enduring a Christmas
holiday where I came home and promptly buried my head in my
@@ -569,10 +581,10 @@
<para>Hats off to Shep Kendall, through whom the world of
computers was first opened to me; Ben Collins-Sussman, my
- tour-guide through the open-source world; Karl Fogel—you
+ tour-guide through the open source world; Karl Fogel, you
<emphasis>are</emphasis> my <filename>.emacs</filename>; Greg
Stein, for oozing practical programming know-how; Brian
- Fitzpatrick—for sharing this writing experience with me.
+ Fitzpatrick, for sharing this writing experience with me.
To the many folks from whom I am constantly picking up new
knowledge—keep dropping it!</para>
@@ -588,14 +600,14 @@
<!-- ================================================================= -->
<sect1 id="svn.intro.whatis">
- <title>What is Subversion?</title>
+ <title>What Is Subversion?</title>
- <para>Subversion is a free/open-source version control system.
+ <para>Subversion is a free/open source version control system.
That is, Subversion manages files and directories, and the
changes made to them, over time. This allows you to recover
- older versions of your data, or examine the history of how your
+ older versions of your data or examine the history of how your
data changed. In this regard, many people think of a version
- control system as a sort of <quote>time machine</quote>.</para>
+ control system as a sort of <quote>time machine.</quote></para>
<para>Subversion can operate across networks, which allows it to
be used by people on different computers. At some level, the
@@ -609,7 +621,7 @@
<para>Some version control systems are also software configuration
management (SCM) systems. These systems are specifically
- tailored to manage trees of source code, and have many features
+ tailored to manage trees of source code and have many features
that are specific to software development—such as natively
understanding programming languages, or supplying tools for
building software. Subversion, however, is not one of these
@@ -627,7 +639,7 @@
<para>If you're a user or system administrator pondering the use
of Subversion, the first question you should ask yourself is:
- "is this the right tool for the job?" Subversion is a
+ "Is this the right tool for the job?" Subversion is a
fantastic hammer, but be careful not to view every problem as
a nail.</para>
@@ -638,11 +650,11 @@
documents (usually over a network) and keep track of who made
which changes, then Subversion is also appropriate. This is
why Subversion is so often used in software development
- environments — programming is an inherently social
+ environments— programming is an inherently social
activity, and Subversion makes it easy to collaborate with
other programmers. Of course, there's a cost to using
Subversion as well: administrative overhead. You'll need to
- manage a data-repository to store the information and all its
+ manage a data repository to store the information and all its
history, and be diligent about backing it up. When working
with the data on a daily basis, you won't be able to copy,
move, rename, or delete files the way you usually do.
@@ -656,10 +668,11 @@
a common misuse is to treat it as a generic distribution
system. People will sometimes use Subversion to distribute
huge collections of photos, digital music, or software
- packages. The problem is, this sort of data usually isn't
+ packages. The problem is that this sort of data usually isn't
changing at all. The collection itself grows over time, but
the individual files within the collection aren't being
- changed. In this case, using Subversion is "overkill".
+ changed. In this case, using Subversion
+ is <quote>overkill.</quote>
<footnote>
<para>Or as a friend puts it, <quote>swatting a fly with a
Buick.</quote></para>
@@ -685,7 +698,7 @@
In early 2000, CollabNet, Inc. (<ulink
url="http://www.collab.net"/>) began seeking developers to
write a replacement for CVS. CollabNet offers a collaboration
- software suite called CollabNet Enterprise Edition (CEE) of
+ software suite called CollabNet Enterprise Edition (CEE), of
which one component is version control. Although CEE used CVS
as its initial version control system, CVS's limitations were
obvious from the beginning, and CollabNet knew it would
@@ -708,37 +721,38 @@
day at their jobs. Their frustration with CVS had led Jim to
think carefully about better ways to manage versioned data, and
he'd already come up with not only the name
- <quote>Subversion</quote>, but also with the basic design of the
- Subversion data store. When CollabNet called, Karl immediately
- agreed to work on the project, and Jim got his employer, Red Hat
- Software, to essentially donate him to the project for an
- indefinite period of time. CollabNet hired Karl and Ben
- Collins-Sussman, and detailed design work began in May. With
- the help of some well-placed prods from Brian Behlendorf and
- Jason Robbins of CollabNet, and Greg Stein (at the time an
- independent developer active in the WebDAV/DeltaV specification
- process), Subversion quickly attracted a community of active
- developers. It turned out that many people had had the same
- frustrating experiences with CVS, and welcomed the chance to
- finally do something about it.</para>
+ <quote>Subversion,</quote> but also with the basic design of
+ the Subversion data store. When CollabNet called, Karl
+ immediately agreed to work on the project, and Jim got his
+ employer, Red Hat Software, to essentially donate him to the
+ project for an indefinite period of time. CollabNet hired
+ Karl and Ben Collins-Sussman, and detailed design work began
+ in May 2000. With the help of some well-placed prods from
+ Brian Behlendorf and Jason Robbins of CollabNet, and from Greg
+ Stein (at the time an independent developer active in the
+ WebDAV/DeltaV specification process), Subversion quickly
+ attracted a community of active developers. It turned out
+ that many people had encountered the same frustrating
+ experiences with CVS and welcomed the chance to finally do
+ something about it.</para>
<para>The original design team settled on some simple goals. They
didn't want to break new ground in version control methodology,
they just wanted to fix CVS. They decided that Subversion would
- match CVS's features, and preserve the same development model,
+ match CVS's features and preserve the same development model,
but not duplicate CVS's most obvious flaws. And although it did
not need to be a drop-in replacement for CVS, it should be
similar enough that any CVS user could make the switch with
little effort.</para>
- <para>After fourteen months of coding, Subversion became
+ <para>After 14 months of coding, Subversion became
<quote>self-hosting</quote> on August 31, 2001. That is,
Subversion developers stopped using CVS to manage Subversion's
- own source code, and started using Subversion instead.</para>
+ own source code and started using Subversion instead.</para>
<para>While CollabNet started the project, and still funds a large
chunk of the work (it pays the salaries of a few full-time
- Subversion developers), Subversion is run like most open-source
+ Subversion developers), Subversion is run like most open source
projects, governed by a loose, transparent set of rules that
encourage meritocracy. CollabNet's copyright license is fully
compliant with the Debian Free Software Guidelines. In other
@@ -768,7 +782,7 @@
<varlistentry>
<term>Directory versioning</term>
<listitem>
- <para>CVS only tracks the history of individual files, but
+ <para>CVS tracks only the history of individual files, but
Subversion implements a <quote>virtual</quote> versioned
filesystem that tracks changes to whole directory trees
over time. Files <emphasis>and</emphasis> directories are
@@ -797,9 +811,9 @@
<term>Atomic commits</term>
<listitem>
<para>A collection of modifications either goes into the
- repository completely, or not at all. This allows
+ repository completely or not at all. This allows
developers to construct and commit changes as logical
- chunks, and prevents problems that can occur when only a
+ chunks and prevents problems that can occur when only a
portion of a set of changes is successfully sent to the
repository.</para>
</listitem>
@@ -828,7 +842,7 @@
server—authentication, authorization, wire
compression, and so on. A more lightweight, standalone
Subversion server process is also available. This server
- speaks a custom protocol which can be easily tunneled over
+ speaks a custom protocol that can be easily tunneled over
SSH.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
@@ -851,7 +865,7 @@
<para>The cost of branching and tagging need not be
proportional to the project size. Subversion creates
branches and tags by simply copying the project, using a
- mechanism similar to a hard-link. Thus these operations
+ mechanism similar to a hard link. Thus these operations
take only a very small, constant amount of time.
</para>
</listitem>
@@ -882,7 +896,7 @@
design.</para>
<figure id="svn.intro.architecture.dia-1">
- <title>Subversion's Architecture</title>
+ <title>Subversion's architecture</title>
<graphic fileref="images/ch01dia1.png"/>
</figure>
@@ -935,7 +949,7 @@
<varlistentry>
<term>svnadmin</term>
<listitem>
- <para>A tool for creating, tweaking or repairing a Subversion
+ <para>A tool for creating, tweaking, or repairing a Subversion
repository.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
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