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by Animats 4184 days ago
Github's convention that web pages for a project are in a different branch of the same project is kind of strange.

Also, those things they call "conrefs" are just "macros".

2 comments

> Github's convention that web pages for a project are in a different branch of the same project is kind of strange.

It does have the advantage of 0-configuration 0-conflict.

But because it namespaces through the branch, if you're using the repository for something other than just the pages you can't have the gh-pages simply follow/trail master unless you want a bunch of site crap at the root of your repository, and interacting with both code and documentation at the same time is more painful than it needs be.

> Also, those things they call "conrefs" are just "macros".

Macros have a wider implied range of behavior, possibly completely arbitrary.

A content reference attribute is just a placeholder or a very small textual include[0] (XML calls them "named entities", rST calls them "substitutions")

[0] usually not of a complete document

I think a macro implies something that can be executed, and (rightly) ought to cause security-minded folks to double-take.

Conref isn't something we invented, it's straight out of DITA: http://dita.xml.org/arch-conref

> I think a macro implies something that can be executed

That isn't true... Traditionally a macro just refers to a substitution, maybe (but not necessarily) with parameter replacement, rescanning, etc. I'd say that lisp-style macros which can execute arbitrary code are actually rather rare historically....