Currently the XML source of the CLFS book consists of a number of .xml files in different directories for different architectures. For example, in the "final-system" section there is a "common" directory for package information common to all archs, then most packages also have another .xml file in a "multilib" and/or "64" directory for 64-bit builds, and there may be additional files for other archs (such as mips64, or ppc) for some packages. This can make it a pain to do even a single line update to 1 package, because it also requires checking any other arch-specific files for that package and adding an xinclude, and making sure it's in the right place, and possibly rearranging the os=[x] references in every file.

A few years ago, Joe Ciccone started work on a "simp" branch of the CLFS book with the goal of simplifying the XML code, so that all information for a given package, with instructions for all archs, can be put in a single file. There is some info on this in the Trac ticket here - http://trac.cross-lfs.org/ticket/923 - and in his message to mailing list describing the project - http://lists.cross-lfs.org/pipermail/clfs-dev-cross-lfs.org/2011-April/000942.html. For the most part, it seems to work pretty well, but a problem I found is that when I use the new schema from the simp branch, there are several XML tags that are not recognized and do not have any equivalent there. Also, I don't really know much about XML/XSL, so I don't know if there are other, less obvious issues that I haven't seen (and I wouldn't be surprised if there were as Joe apparently never quite finished work on that branch).

We would appreciate any kind of assistance/testing with the "simp" branch (or any similar improvement, if someone wants to suggest a different implementation altogether), from anyone who might be able to help with XML/XSL/Docbook code.

Thanks,
Chris
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