Re: Project future.

Edward Mann wrote:
> On Tue, 2008-12-02 at 16:09 -0800, Mike Bowie wrote:
>> Mauro C. wrote:
>>> Hi to all,
>>>
>>> During try to fix #737 #738 #631 #616 had a look inside many parts of net.sourceforge.phpeclipse
>>>
>>> notice many things to do:
>>>
>>> 1) Decide how to use subversion, work always on trunk or create branch for major release.
>>
>> 1) I believe the way subversion is being used currently generally 
>> "correct", with major development changes being carried out on a branch 
>> and then merged with (or replacing) trunk.  I think in this case there 
>> might be advantages in not branching however... I think we could get 
>> away with tagging releases and developing in trunk.  Perhaps someone 
>> else can suggest what we stand to gain from branching before a release; 
>> given the scale of the development team and the volume of commits.
>>
> 
> It has been said that patching trunk with changes from branch is more
> work, and i agree it's more work, but it's necessary work. This extra
> step insures that when we release a version of PHPEclipse it's as stable
> as we can make it at that point. 
> 
> My vote is for staying with branching. Simon is crying now so i must go.
> 
> Thanks everyone for your work.

I have no objection to branching if the need exists, but I think we need 
to make sure developers are notified as to the creation of new branches 
and their purposes.  I suspect that most developers (given the choice) 
will move non-critical work to the active branch rather than creating 
more work on trunk.  By doing so, I think we're less likely to see bugs
created as a result of "the merge" back to trunk.

If we can notify everyone when a branch is created, what it's for and 
what it's expected lifespan is, I think we'll be able to take advantage 
of it more... in addition, if everyone is alerted that the branch is 
reaching it end of life (about to be merged) that will allow them to 
refocus appropriately.

At the risk of repeating myself, I don't think all versions etc call for 
a new branch... the examples Mr Mann outlined would be the usual cases 
for doing so, but if we can save effort on merging, I really think we 
should.

I'm not sure why I'm harping on about this so much... I think my commits 
are less than 15k all up. :-/

Best "End of year festivity" wishes to all,

Mike.

-- 
"You don't see FreeBSD developers sitting in a smoke-filled room 
plotting the overthrow of Microsoft. We sit in light, airy rooms and 
plot where to get the best drinks." - Michael Lucas

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SF.Net email is Sponsored by MIX09, March 18-20, 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The future of the web can't happen without you.  Join us at MIX09 to help
pave the way to the Next Web now. Learn more and register at
http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;208669438;13503038;i?http://2009.visitmix.com/