Can docbook and mallard co-exit? Yes - a proof of concept

[Shaun McCance]

On Mon, 2010-01-25 at 21:49 -0500, Kyle Nitzsche wrote:
> I suggested that mallard (brilliant, incomplete) enables anyone who can 
> package to add content to Ubuntu Help Center. And I observed that users 
> have no way of knowing whether content was official or was added by such 
> means. And that some such mallard content could be wrong in various and 
> unknown ways. Therefore,  mallard is not (yet) appropriate for Ubuntu 
> system docs until this (at least) is resolved.

Phil did bring this issue to gnome-doc-list:

http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-doc-list/2010-January/msg00065.html

And I did reply with some thoughts:

http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-doc-list/2010-January/msg00076.html

The short of it is, I think it's entirely possible to develop
a link signature system to accomplish what you want.  In fact,
I played around with this Sunday.  If I have time this week,
I'd like to get back to it and send a proof of concept.

But it's important to note that packages can override DocBook
documentation today.  Your system docs aren't nearly as safe
as you think they are.  If somebody really wants to get around
link signatures in Mallard, they can circumvent them using the
same technique they can use to override DocBook documents.

I think link signatures are an interesting idea that are worth
developing.  I also think you're making a showstopper out of
something that hasn't shown itself to be a real problem.

-- 
Shaun McCance
http://syllogist.net/