On Thu, Mar 19, 2009 at 11:43:14AM -0700, Joshua A. Andler wrote:
Hey All,
Due to concerns and issues voiced in the past, it seems like we should talk about how GSoC projects should be handled in our repository. A big concern is the impact on Trunk and if we want to release 0.47 with minimal pain this year. Given that I'm the hold-over release warden for 0.47, and that I have also taken on future release related duties from bryce... I'd like to see things work as smoothly as possible.
What are some thoughts on what to do?
One of the hardest things for me about managing the release is "release blocker bugs". Especially when no one was actively working on solving the bugs, these cause delays to the whole process which is very taxing.
Instead, I think we should move to more of a timed release process. Put out major releases regularly every 3 months like clockwork, and allow for doing point releases in between for any serious bugs that slipped through.
Should we stick to the way we did it in the past and potentially introduce much more breakage in the near future? Branches on an as-needed basis? Perhaps just a GSoC2009 branch for all students work to be committed to?
Even in general, having an "experimentation" branch might make the barrier of entry lower for new contributors, or people who'd like to work on something and get community testing feedback before committing to it officially.
I could see the latter being beneficial to ease testing all their work with no harm to trunk the process. Additionally, it's a great way to learn about our "don't break trunk" rule... the students will be forced to commit responsibly as breaking it would hinder all other students too (which I would hope they'd be vocal yet diplomatic in handling).
Good points.
Bryce