Glossary¶

The following key terms are used throughout this document. \gls{markdown-def} is also used by the live example in Prodockit authoring features.

Admonition - A labelled, coloured callout box (Note, Tip, Warning, and so on) used to highlight information set apart from the main body text, without interrupting the flow of a paragraph.

Attribute list - Markdown syntax ({: ... }) that attaches an id, CSS class, or other HTML attribute to the element directly above it - the mechanism the cross-reference, citation, acronym, and glossary features are all built on.

Bibliography - A list of sources generated from structured records, commonly a BibTeX or BibLaTeX file, using a selected citation style.

Branch - An independent line of development within a repository, letting you make changes without affecting the default branch until they're ready to be merged.

Build - The process of turning the project's source files and configuration into an output such as the website or PDF.

Caption - A numbered description attached to a figure or table so it can be identified and cross-referenced consistently.

Cascading Style Sheets - The language used to control the visual appearance (colours, spacing, fonts, layout) of a web page, kept separate from its content. See the Acronyms entry for the expansion.

CI/CD - The practice of automatically building, testing, and publishing a project every time a change is pushed, rather than as a separate manual step. See the Acronyms entry for the expansion.

Citation - A marker in the document that acknowledges a source and connects the statement to its full entry in a reference list or bibliography.

Clone - Creating a full local copy of a remote repository, including its entire history, so you can edit it on your own computer.

Commit - A saved snapshot of your changes in Git, together with a message describing what changed and why.

Cross-reference - A link from one part of a document to a numbered heading, figure, table, or other labelled target whose displayed number can be generated automatically.

Default branch - The branch a repository treats as its main line of work, normally named main, and the branch publishing workflows usually build.

Dependency - A package, program, font, or system library that another part of the project needs in order to build or run correctly.

Deployment - The act of placing a successfully built website or other output onto the service from which readers access it.

Docs-as-code - An approach to writing documentation that uses the same tools and workflow as software development - plain text files, version control, and peer review - rather than a word processor or wiki.

Fenced code block - A block of code set apart from the surrounding text by a line of three or more backticks before and after it, optionally labelled with a language name for syntax highlighting.

Fork - Your own copy of someone else's repository, created on the hosting service (GitLab or GitHub) itself, which you can then clone and edit independently of the original.

Front matter - A block of YAML metadata at the top of a Markdown file, delimited by --- lines, that configures how that page is built or displayed (its icon, whether it's an appendix, and so on) without appearing in the rendered content.

HEAD - Git's pointer to the commit your working directory currently reflects - normally the tip of whichever branch you have checked out.

Markdown - A lightweight markup language for formatting plain text, using a simple, readable syntax that converts into HTML for web publishing.

Merge conflict - A situation where Git cannot safely combine two changes to the same content and needs a person to choose the intended result.

Origin - The conventional name Git gives to the remote repository from which a project was cloned and to which it normally pushes.

Pages - The website-hosting service provided by GitHub or GitLab for publishing a repository's generated static site.

Personal access token - A long, randomly generated code that acts as a substitute for a password, scoped to a single purpose and revocable at any time without changing your main account credentials. See the Acronyms entry for the expansion.

Pipeline - An automated sequence of jobs that checks, builds, and may deploy a project after a change is pushed.

Portable Document Format - A fixed-layout document format that looks the same regardless of the software, hardware, or operating system used to open it. See the Acronyms entry for the expansion.

Processor architecture - The instruction set used by a computer's processor, such as ARM64 or x86-64. Executable programs and native libraries must use compatible architectures.

Pull request - A request to merge changes from one branch into another, reviewed and discussed by collaborators before it's accepted. See the Acronyms entry for the expansion - GitLab calls the same thing a Merge Request.

Remote - A named connection from a local Git repository to another copy hosted elsewhere. origin is the usual name for the main remote.

Renderer - A program that converts source notation into its visible form, such as turning Mermaid or TeX source into a diagram or mathematical expression.

Repository - The complete collection of a project's files and their full history of changes, tracked by Git and stored on a service such as GitLab or GitHub.

Secure Shell - An encrypted network protocol used to authenticate with, and send commands to, a remote computer - most commonly used here to connect securely to GitLab or GitHub without typing a password each time. See the Acronyms entry for the expansion.

Static site generator - A tool that converts a set of source files (such as Markdown) into a complete website of plain HTML pages ahead of time, rather than generating each page on demand when a visitor requests it.

Template - A reusable starting project containing an initial structure, configuration, styling, and publishing workflow that authors adapt for their own document.

Version control - A system for recording changes to a set of files over time, so you can review the history, compare versions, and revert to an earlier one if needed.

Virtual environment - A project-specific Python environment that keeps its packages and commands separate from the computer's system Python and from other projects.