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+# Introduction
+
+This directory contains some documentation on how HTML and PDF
+versions of the P4.org specifications are generated and published on
+the P4.org web site.
+
+
+## Released versions of specifications
+
+Since new released versions of P4.org specifications are typically
+released about once per year, or less often, all of the released
+versions are generated, and copied to separate files on the P4.org web
+server.
+
+This includes the latest released versions in the first section of
+this page that has links to specifications: https://p4.org/specs/ It
+also includes all of the links in the "Archives" section at the end of
+that page.
+
+
+## Working draft versions of specifications
+
+We only publish the most recent HTML and PDF draft version of
+specifications, generated from the latest commit in the appropriate
+specification repository.  If someone wants an older version, they can
+check out any older version of the specification soruces they wish,
+and then follow the published instructions for how to generate HTML
+and PDF from the source,
+e.g. [here](https://github.com/p4lang/p4-spec/tree/main/p4-16/spec#building).
+
+
+### Working draft versions of specifications, generated from AsciiDoc source
+
+The details of this are still to be decided.  Ideally they should be
+documnted here after those decisions have been made.
+
+
+### Working draft versions of specifications, generated from Madoko source (historical interest only as of 2024)
+
+As of the switch from Madoko to AsciiDoc as the source format used to
+maintain P4.org specifications, in late 2024, this section is
+primarily of historical interest.  It is documented here as an aid to
+those involved in making the changes required to cause that
+transition.
+
+On the specifications page [here](https://p4.org/specs/), there are
+links labeled "working draft", both HTML and PDF links, for most of
+the specifications.
+
+As of 2024-Nov-13, these working draft links point to the URLs shown
+below.
+
++ P4_16 Language Specification
+  + HTML: https://p4.org/p4-spec/docs/p4-16-working-draft.html
+    + loads the file at URL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/p4lang/p4-spec/gh-pages/docs/P4-16-working-spec.html
+  + PDF: https://p4.org/p4-spec/docs/p4-16-working-draft-pdf.html
+    + loads the file at URL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/p4lang/p4-spec/gh-pages/docs/P4-16-working-spec.pdf
++ P4Runtime specification
+  + HTML: https://p4.org/p4-spec/docs/p4runtime-spec-working-draft-html-version.html
+    + loads the file at URL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/p4lang/p4runtime/gh-pages/spec/main/P4Runtime-Spec.html
+  + PDF: https://p4.org/p4-spec/docs/p4runtime-spec-working-draft-pdf-version.html
+    + loads the file at URL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/p4lang/p4runtime/gh-pages/spec/main/P4Runtime-Spec.pdf
++ P4_16 Portable NIC Architecture (PNA)
+  + HTML: https://p4.org/p4-spec/docs/pna-working-draft-html-version.html
+    + loads the file at URL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/p4lang/pna/gh-pages/docs/PNA-working-draft.html
+  + PDF: https://p4.org/p4-spec/docs/pna-working-draft-pdf-version.html
+    + loads the file at URL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/p4lang/pna/gh-pages/docs/PNA-working-draft.pdf
++ P4_16 Portable Switch Architecture (PSA)
+  + HTML: https://p4.org/p4-spec/docs/psa-working-draft-html-version.html
+    + loads the file at URL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/p4lang/p4-spec/gh-pages/docs/PSA.html
+  + PDF: https://p4.org/p4-spec/docs/psa-working-draft-pdf-version.html
+    + loads the file at URL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/p4lang/p4-spec/gh-pages/docs/PSA.pdf
+
+Continue reading for the meaning of the "loads the file at URL" links.
+
+Each of the HTML and PDF links is to a small HTML file stored on the
+P4.org web server.  By entering this command:
+
+```bash
+curl -O https://p4.org/p4-spec/docs/p4-16-working-draft.html
+```
+
+You can get a copy of the HTML file at that URL.  Its contents are
+shown below.
+
+```html
+<!DOCTYPE html>
+<html>
+<head>
+<script>
+const url = "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/p4lang/p4-spec/gh-pages/docs/P4-16-working-spec.html";  
+const req = new XMLHttpRequest();
+req.open("GET", url, true);
+req.onload = (_) => {
+    const doc = document.open("text/html", "replace");
+    doc.write( req.response );
+    doc.close();
+};
+req.send(null)
+</script>
+</head>
+<body></body>
+</html>
+```
+
+When someone uses a web browser to follow the working draft HTML link
+for the P4_16 Language Specification, first it loads the small HTML
+file from the P4.org server.  Then the JavaScript code between the
+`<script>` and `</script>` tags is executed by the browser, which
+loads the file from the URL
+https://raw.githubusercontent.com/p4lang/p4-spec/gh-pages/docs/P4-16-working-spec.html
+and displays it in the browser as HTML.  The HTML loaded by the
+JavaScript code replaces the small page loaded from the P4.org web
+server.
+
+This was done in order to allow automated Github actions of the
+repository https://github.com/p4lang/p4-spec to automatically generate
+an HTML file from the Madoko source code, and store this HTML file
+where it can be retrieved from the URL
+https://raw.githubusercontent.com/p4lang/p4-spec/gh-pages/docs/P4-16-working-spec.html
+
+Every time a commit is made to the Madoko source for the P4_16
+language specification, this Github action runs, and stores the newly
+generated HTML output at that URL.  An advantage of this arrangement
+is that *no* files on the P4.org web server need to change on each
+commit.  Even so, people browsing the P4.org specifications page and
+clicking on the working draft links will see the latest generated
+version.
+
+When transitioning from HTML and PDF generated from Madoko sources, to
+HTML and PDF generated from AsciiDoc sources, it seems reasonable to
+expect that we might wish to change the "load the file at URL" URLs,
+by editing the small HTML files stored on the P4.org server, _once_.
+We do not wish to do so many times, but once is reasonable during such
+a rare event as the Madoko to AsciiDoc transition.