Re: [python-control-discuss] SourceForge Repo Clone Complete

[Richard M. <mu...@cd...>]

Spurred by Clancy's discussion about SciPy, I wanted to bring up again the idea of switching python-control over to git and/or github.  I'm attaching below part of a discussion on this list that had a summary that Andrew Straw sent out.

Here is one possible approach that we are using with pretty good success on another project:

* We move the control-python code over to github.  I already have set up a project on github for this (a long time ago) and James Goppert has a clone on github => we could basically clone James's version into the project directory and then set everyone up as developers.

* We use github feature/bug lists for developers.  I find the functionality that github provides to be quite good, including the ability to reference commit's in posts.

* We leave the tarballs for python-control releases and copies of user manuals on sourceforge.  This is constant with the matplotlib approach that Andrew describes below.  As far as I know, github does not provide this functionality.

* We leave the mailing lists for the project on SourceForge.  Near as I can tell, github doesn't have good functionality here.  I would also suggest that we reorganize the lists just a bit:

- python-control-announce: use for announcements of new releases, features
- python-control-discuss: use for user discussions about python-control (i.e., re-purpose this mailing list)
- python-control-developers: use for developer discussions about python-control (new list)

The reason for re-purposing the discuss list is that a couple of people have contacted me about wanting to discuss features, but aren't really interested in developer traffic (e.g., e-mails on commits).

* We eventually use the python-control project on github as the master copy for PyPI and also for code coverage testing.  James Goppert has this running on his version, so hopefully he would be willing to just switch things over for us and also keep maintaining that functionality.

It would be great to get some comments on this from anyone who has an opinion!

-richard

On 5 Sep 2012, at 1:31 , Andrew Straw <str...@as...> wrote:

> On 09/05/2012 08:10 AM, Richard Murray wrote:
>> There hasn't been much conversation about this, but converting to git is probably the way to go in the long run (better functionality for distributed development).  Sourceforge supports git and we can easily transfer projects from subversion to git:
>> 
>>   
>> https://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/sourceforge/ticket/24534
>> 
>> 
>> I don't have much experience with github versus sourceforge in terms of the various features, and so don't have a strong preference beyond doing whatever works best for the people who are actively developing code for the library.
>> 
> 
> As an example, when matplotlib switched from the code repository using svn + sourceforce to git + github, there was a dramatic increase in contributions. MPL continues to use sourceforge for the email lists. The issue tracking was later switched to github, despite some missing functionality, in order to have integration with the version control system (having "closed issue" messages linked to the commit that closed them). All that said, these data are from some time ago (2 years, approximately) -- since that time, sourceforge seems to have made some dramatic changes (adding git, revising their issue tracking system) and I cannot fairly compare sourceforge's current offerings. See https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib for the MPL github respository. So, my evidence is that your criterion of "whatever works best for the people who are actively developing code for the library" will be best served by moving to github because you'll gain new contributors. This was more-or-less the discussion we had in the matplotlib email list and, although I haven't quantified it, the evidence of new contributors is very clear.
> 
> You'll also gain resonance with similar minds using similar tools and also possibly interested in python-control, thus increasing the likely number of high-quality contributions. Here are some projects that all use github as their primary repository as far as I know:
> 
> * numpy https://github.com/numpy/numpy
> * IPython https://github.com/ipython/ipython
> * sympy https://github.com/sympy/sympy
> * scipy https://github.com/scipy/scipy
> * ROS https://github.com/ros
> 
> As far as how to switch to github, I guess the easiest way, if SF offers a "convert this repository to git" button, is to press that button and then clone the SF repository to your local computer, create a github repository and then push your local repository onto github. (Then maybe delete the SF one or at least block writing to it.)
> 
> -Andrew
> 
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