Publishing tools need both: state-oriented and task-oriented version support

A new combination of state- and task-oriented version support techniques are proposed that meets the special versioning requirements of publishing. The introduced derivate of relationship records the evolution of a single document as well as the development of documents across document boundaries. The proposed hierarchical task concept offers selective access to consistent states of documents at different levels of detail and abstraction. Mixed nesting of permanent and nonpermanent tasks provides encapsulated work areas for ongoing tasks, but still enhances the degree to which consistent versions can be shared