[scribus] Using SVN for Scribus sla files

[Gregory Pittman]

Calum Polwart wrote:
> I work on a small newsletter project.  While I understand how workflow
> should be getting others to play nicely is difficult so there seems to
> be a relatively large amount if editing done (spelling, typos, grammar
> occasionally rewording to fit something into space)after I've added to
> the scribus layout.
>
> I'm increasingly thinking it would be better to share the document in an
> editable format with the editor.  But as we are 350miles apart to work
> in real-time this would need to be - either:
>
> - A 'Shared Drive' on a Virtual Private Network
> - A SubVersioning System
>
> Share Drive has several disadvantages.  Only one person can edit the
> file at once being one of the main ones.  If I leave the file open and
> go out for 8 hours (as I tend to!) its locked for the whole time.  It'd
> need a VPN and while I could set that up rest assured the Editor would
> have issues!  File names may be problematic - I work on linux - he works
> on Windows.  VPN may be quite slow.  By the time the document is
> finished it usually creates a 60Mb PDF - so that'd be bandwidth hungry
> and I suspect slow.
>
> SVN on the other-hand MAY allow dual user edits - after all the file is
> an XML file - so basically plain text?  There are windows GUI front ends
>  for SVN - all he'd basically need to do would be click "update/commit".
>  SVN would use a local file so should be quicker to work with in terms
> of edits and bandwidth would only by the sla file and any other
> added/edited files not every file every time.  My biggest concern (apart
> from the XML not actually being "mergable" would be file names?)
>
> Looking for anyone who actually does this or something to achieve the
> same result to chip in and tell me what they think?
>   
I wonder if svn might be overkill for this. One thing to consider is 
which part(s) you want to allow someone else to edit. If they are mainly 
editing text, keep the text separate for that purpose.
If I were in charge of layout, I don't think I'd want others fiddling 
with my layout -- make suggestions for edits, sure, but let one person 
be responsible for the layout.

Greg