[TCLCORE] Why TCT needs maintainers

[Donald G P. <dg...@ca...>]

Eventually, the TCT has to make a release of Tcl.

This means that some identifiable branch of the CVS repository needs to
have all development pause with the code in that branch in a release-ready
state.

One goal I have for TCT's leadership of Tcl development by the community
at large is the existence of many parallel development projects on the
Tcl core with lots of contributors.  It is unlikely that the development
calendars of all of these projects will coincide.  How can a release
be made when some projects are complete, some are in mid-development,
and others are just starting, but all are working on the same code
base?

This means that releases should only be made from CVS branches to which
commits are more tightly controlled than an "anyone can commit anywhere"
policy can manage.  That control is what I want a set of maintainers
to provide.

I want maintainers charged with the responsibilty of delivering bug-free
versions of their sections suitable for release.  They accomplish that
by exercising authority over what changes they merge onto the release
branch from other development branches, where more creative chaos can
reign.

I also want responsibility for bug fixes assignable to a single person.
If someone asks, "Will bug #X be fixed in the next release", I want to
say, "Ask so-and-so, he's maintaining that section", not "Well, we'll
see if any of the hundred or so community members with CVS write access
happens to pluck that bug report out of the database and fix it."

DGP

--
The TclCore mailing list is sponsored by Ajuba Solutions
To unsubscribe:  email tcl...@aj... with the 
                 word UNSUBSCRIBE as the subject.