Re: [Sablevm-developer] suggestion: sablevm developer doc

[Prof. E. M. G. <eti...@uq...>]

On Tue, Mar 18, 2003 at 11:27:19AM -0500, Chris Pickett wrote:
> I agree, CVS only allows for a few different models.  However, other 
> than the problem of creating a branch every time you want to release, I 
> can't really see what's wrong with having short-lived branches.

How much development experience do you have on moderately big software
projects?  [I seriously want a detailed answer to this question.  You
may answer privately, if you think it is more appropriate.]


Personally, I do see all kind of problems with short-lived branches
(specially for managing an automatically generated changelog file,
which is necessary to honor the requirements of the LGPL license, in
case you were not aware).

I don't have time to justify every single little decision of mine.
You will have to learn to live with some of my decisions, or you may
fork your own project.  One of these decisions is that will live with
a single trunk, no branches.

The only thing I can do, if you want to put all sort of stuff into
CVS, is to start a "distinct module", sablevm-experimental, that could
live in parallel, where there would be, again, a single trunk, but
where all developers can check-in stuff freely (as long as the code is
licensed appropriately, no non-clean-room contribution as usual).

> Can we have write access in the meantime then? 

Most other developers already have write access.  You won't get write
access before:
1- You change your SF user account name to something more professional.
2- You ask me for it, and we make the mandatory agreement on legal issues.

[Personally, I was toying with the idea of moving to a "old" Linus
model where contributions would be submitted as patches (but using a
SF tracker, in stead of the mailing-list), just to make sure no hot
headed developer went and screwed up the CVS repository
inadvertently...]

> are only a handful of developers.  We could set up a cvs-commit mailer 
> that automatically sends out all changes and who made them.

You have to learn to RTFM (or I should say RTFWP [Web Page])...  Have
you looked at the links at the top left of the www.sablevm.org web
page?

> I don't *desperately* need write access.

Go say that to Linus Torvalds.   Ha ha! :-)))))

Seriously, SableVM users expect me to make sure write access is given
carefully, so that the legal status and the technical stability of the
project are not jeopardized.  So, first I need to know that whatever
you will check-in won't cause problems.  There's nothing wrong with
setting your own private PRCS repository, which is what I do!  PRCS is
fantastic for managing local CVS snapshots.  Try it.  It doesn't
create CVS subdirectories, so it doesn't conflict with CVS. :-))

Etienne
-- 
Etienne M. Gagnon, Ph.D.             http://www.info.uqam.ca/~egagnon/
SableVM:                                       http://www.sablevm.org/
SableCC:                                       http://www.sablecc.org/