Subversion RSS

So now that all of my important files are tracked under Subversion, I have some opportunities that I didn't have before. I can add to my iGoogle page or Netvibes any arbitrary tree or sub-tree of the files that I publish. I can maintain a window page with 500 or so links to samples of my work. I can publish that page as well, and share it with the world even. Neat!

I've added some tools to the Web Developer's Arsenal that I try to carry with me at every computer that I use to do publishing. The first cool toy that has a requirement of more cool toys beyond a simple printer is SeaMonkey's DAV publisher. DAV is like Subversion, in that it allows the user to publish a file directly using an HTTP client. It's a simple protocol for file exchange over HTTP, instead of another protocol that supports file exchange like FTP, Skype, or rsync.

SeaMonkey allows the user to edit a page as if it were Wiki content, and publish the changes directly to a DAV server. Subversion's DAV implementation is very friendly to ordinary web clients like Firefox and Safari: it allows the user to browse the tree of files and directories and download the latest revision of each. For an ordinary web server with simple support for DAV and any ordinary web page, it would not be so easy to identify the presence of the protocol.

Subversion repositories do not interact directly with SeaMonkey. Managers should not interact directly with Subversion repositories. Instead it is better for them to use the XML/RSS interface provided by WebSVN, and a reader like Google Reader or Windows Live Mail. Tuesday Studios Web Components implement RSS feeds, Subversion, DAV, and PHP applications. Support for Python and Ruby are forthcoming.

My Norwegian keyboard is still prëtty gøød, but it feels like an invitation to commit møre spellïng grëivånces into the revision history that is the world internet. Better to stick to the home keys I think, and I'm getting used to the location of the apostrophe ' parens () and forward / and back \ slashes. I still wouldn't say that I'm flu€nt in Norwegian but I'm quite sure that I'm well on the way ¤=) Thanks KPB