Markdown Discuss - Aug 2007 - PEAR Channel and Git Repository Mirror for PHP Markdown & Extra

Until today, the only way I offered PHP Markdown and PHP Markdown  
Extra was with packaged zip files available on my website. It turns  
out, unsurprisingly, that some people would prefer a simpler path for  
keeping their copy of PHP Markdown up-to-date.

So today I announce two additional ways of grabbing PHP Markdown and  
PHP Markdown Extra. The first one is a PEAR channel which can be used  
with the PEAR installer. PEAR is a packaging system included in the  
default PHP install, and thus should be ideal to update PHP Markdown  
on a server.

The channel's name for PEAR is "pear.michelf.com", and you can get
basic instructions as to how to use it by going to the web page at  
the same address: <http://pear.michelf.com/>.

The second method for grabbing PHP Markdown is to use the Git[^1]  
repository mirror available at <http://git.michelf.com/php-markdown/ 
 >. This is a direct mirror of my local Git repository I'm using to  
keep track of changes I make while working on the code. The  
repository contains two branches: the "master" branch contains the  
code for PHP Markdown; and PHP Markdown Extra is maintained in the  
"extra" branch.

The Git mirror should be particularly interesting to other developers  
who want to follow PHP Markdown's development and track changes made  
to it. Take note that I offer no guaranties about the stability of  
the code on the head of any branch, so be careful with what you get  
there.

So, that's it. Questions, comments are welcome.


[^1]:
     [Git][] is a version control system created by Linus Torvalds to  
manage
     the development of the Linux kernel.

[Git]: http://git.or.cz/


Michel Fortin
michel.fortin at michelf.com
http://www.michelf.com/

On Aug 31, 2007, at 10:22 PM, Michel Fortin wrote:
> [...]
> So today I announce two additional ways of grabbing PHP Markdown  
> and PHP Markdown Extra. The first one is a PEAR channel [...]
Since I was one of those requesting this, here?s my feedback: I think  
PEAR is badly suited to my purpose. For WordPress the file  
(markdown.php) needs to be in wp-content/plugins or so *and* I need  
to edit the file for my configuration changes (e.g. having it output  
HTML tags rather than XHTML).

The location thing can probably be solved with a symbolic link, but  
while I didn?t experiment with PEAR, I do not think it supports  
upgrading a package where the user has local changes -- maybe it  
would be worth considering getting preferences optionally from a  
separate file (it?s no real problem for me though, just mentioning  
that maybe it is not ideal, especially if one install of PHP Markdown  
is shared among multiple users/systems).

Anyway, PEAR might be good for other setups (so I am not saying  
remove it, just that for me, this seems to be no better than the zip).
> The second method for grabbing PHP Markdown is to use the Git[^1]  
> repository mirror available at
<http://git.michelf.com/php-markdown/>.
This works for my purpose, i.e. I can just git pull and have git  
merge in my local changes etc. Thanks!
> [...] The repository contains two branches: the "master" branch  
> contains the code for PHP Markdown; and PHP Markdown Extra is  
> maintained in the "extra" branch.
I wonder how you plan to maintain this.

Since the two branches are newer going to be merged, but Markdown  
Extra is supposed to always be a superset of Markdown, ideally you  
would re-base extra each time you update master -- but because you  
make the extra branch public, you can?t do that (by convention, since  
a re-base will remove nodes, causing a problem when other fetch  
changes for the extra branch) so instead you will have to cherry-pick  
the patches applied to master.

I guess cherry-picking each time will work, but it seems like maybe  
the two versions of markdown.php should not be maintained as two  
separate branches, as those branches will effectively only share one  
parent node (the root node) and have lots of identical descendants,  
but with no tie between them.

So I would suggest just having one source with PHP?s equivalent of  
#ifdef MARKDOWN_EXTRA or similar, for where they diverge.
> The Git mirror should be particularly interesting to other  
> developers who want to follow PHP Markdown's development and track  
> changes made to it. Take note that I offer no guaranties about the  
> stability of the code on the head of any branch, so be careful with  
> what you get there.
Could you introduce a ?latest? tag which is the latest release  
version? That would make it easier to track.