On Wed, 2009-11-04 at 10:22 +0100, J.B.C.Engelen@...1578... wrote:
I'm not sure whether it is the refactoring that troubles this release.
I'm not saying it troubled this release, but that something of that nature would potentially (not definitely) make for a longer 0.48 cycle.
However, a practical problem of large refactoring is that it touches the source in many different places. This makes it very likely that changes in trunk coincide with refactoring changes in the branch. A lot of time (and frustration) will be spent merging in changes from trunk. This is also true for non-refactoring but invasive new features, like LPE was.
Well, I'm not going to say that a proper DVCS will make the merges less difficult, however, just as I am willing to test branches, I am also willing to help merge more often (and address issues that arise) to make it easier on the devs in the trenches.
Moreover, very few people test branches. I remember Josh (ScislaC) and sim (?) being the only ones who regularly checked out my LPE branch for testing. A branch was used for group/stacked LPE, but perhaps two people (other than the devs) tested it a little.
I think you're underestimating our community. :) As with any high profile, exciting, or important changes, if you tap the community I think they will surprise you. For things that are less obvious or exciting, there are still a couple of us that would be more than happy to test.
Many bugs are discovered late, and it seems a branch will only delay that. On the upside, there are also a lot of bugs that are discovered early but the bugreports reach the developer(s) very late or not at all; the upside is that when a branch is used, the bugs are easier to target to a specific branch and to specific developer(s).
I can't disagree about when bugs are discovered... there's a reason why regular users report bugs after release that no one saw in testing. :) The branch recommendation was really just for 0.48 though... is there something you're working on that you're particularly concerned about? Post a diff right now and I'll start testing.
I think more important than a branch is a teamed effort for big projects. From my own experience, refactoring alone is no fun; refactoring in a team (thanks Verbal and Diederik!) is much more fun. So I feel that before anyone should take up refactoring, he should find a team to do it with. This reduces the risk of 'vacation' or 'sick of it' problems.
Yes it is more fun... this is why I want 0.47 out the door. So we can get back to collaborative development. Releases are a "drag"... momentum comes to a crawl, the energy is sapped from the community, and contributions are few and far between. This is part of my wanting to be able to get 0.48 done quickly, to keep the pace and energy as much as possible into a longer refactoring cycle.
Cheers, Josh