Possibility to pin version of Bikeshed/ReSpec

[tidoust]

Via gpuweb/gpuweb#3222 (comment)

Spec-prod automatically uses the latest version of Bikeshed or ReSpec. Once in a while, an update to the edition tools introduces a bug that breaks builds of a particular spec (in the above example because the tool generates invalid HTML).

Some groups like to take a "dev" approach to spec building, treating editing tools and spec-prod as dependencies. If there was a way to pin the version of the tool being used and a mechanism to detect when a new version is available that creates a PR automatically (not to end up in situations where specs use outdated versions of the tools), that would make it possible to detect that the build breaks before switching to the newer version.

[sidvishnoi]

Something like using requirements.txt and package.json? Sending dependency update PRs could then be responsibility of Dependabot.

[tidoust]

I had mentioned "dependencies" more as a model of thinking in terms of versions than in terms of using a particular dependencies mechanism. That said, if the pinned version could be specified in a requirements.txt or package.json file, we could indeed leverage Dependabot's ability to notify repo owners about new versions.