Import (tagged) EpiDoc Stylesheets into EFES as a Git Submodule (or similar)

[gabrielbodard]

The EpiDoc Stylesheets in the Kiln area of EFES need to be imported into the Git repo as an "external"/Submodule from EpiDoc/Stylesheets, rather than copied by hand. Commits from EFES in the direction of Stylesheets should never happen, and local customisations can be executed via the non-Kiln /stylesheets/epidoc directory, as documented.

At release 1.0, the external link should be to the tagged version of EpiDoc Stylesheets 9.0, rather than the head, but in the meantime while both are in development in tandem, let's get them in sync as quickly as possible.

[ajenhl]

I can do this now, without problem, but that would be removing image support and some bits of i18n support. Which probably doesn't matter in this short period of time, but that's just my assumption; can you advise?

[gabrielbodard]

I don't understand why that would involve removing support. Do you mean those changes have been made in the EFES copy of the stylesheets (which shouldn't have been edited, ever, surely?) or what am I missing? If so, can we just make those changes directly in the EpiDoc Reference Stylesheets?--in such a way as not to break anyone else's use of those templates, of course.

If there are EFES changes to EpiDoc Stylesheets needed, which should not be made directly in the Reference Stylesheets repo, then /ROOT/stylesheets/epidoc/ is presumably the place to put those customizations...

[ajenhl]

The copy of the EpiDoc XSLT in EFES were edited there (rather than in the source repository) because a number of the changes were made for people to try out in the workshops, and for us to have a chance to play around with them in live but testing settings.

I can put EFES specific material in stylesheets/epidoc, yes, and if that's what you'd like to do then I can easily do it. The thing to be aware of is that for i18n (which is in the Stylesheets repository currently only on the iospe template), this would involve copying the entire edition structure *-body-structure templates, which makes maintaining sync harder (these templates are over 100 lines long.

I raised the question because I thought that all of this would be merged into the Stylesheets repo relatively soon; in which case not putting material in stylesheets/epidoc (where users are expected to put their own customisation) and then removing it would be nicer to those people updating from the EFES repository during that time (if they had made any changes there themselves).

None of these stop us from taking any approach; I'd just like to know which option you'd prefer: lose the general image and i18n support temporarily, before it is added to the EpiDoc repository; put the general image and i18n support into stylesheets/epidoc (either to be removed when merged into EpiDoc repository or not, but preferably the former); or merge i18n elements into the other edition structure templates, and images in the iospe template, in the EpiDoc repository now.

[gabrielbodard]

As I understand it full dynamic importing of EpiDoc Reference Stylesheets into EFES is something we will need to implement for 2.0. Reassigning milestone.

[gabrielbodard]

We discussed this further in 2021, and the problem seems to be either lack of functionality or lack of understanding of Git Submodules, so is not yet implemented. We need a bit more discussion, but this is still a very strong desideratum.