[Flightgear-devel] communication; project-within-project
On 01/28/2007 04:43 PM, Martin Spott wrote: [last week] I applied the patch which implemented your 'semi-transponder' right the next day. Anything wrong with this ? Definitely not wrong! Thanks! Indeed this week's patches are dependent on last week's patches. Only a few lines of last week's patches needed to be backed out to make way for this week's work. Well, you see: Communication between developers is a nice thing and we practice this quite often, cross-checking isn't that bad either ;-) Spoken like a true pilot. = Those who can read and write the project CVS repository presumably find CVS very convenient. Meanwhile it would be wise to occasionally think about how things look to other contributors, i.e. those who cannot directly write to the repository. Such contributors find CVS vastly less convenient. It is a big hassle to manage patches, even when there are only one or two people working on something. That's because when a patch has been submitted, there is no way to know when or even if it will be committed to the project CVS repository. Collaborators must trade patches hand-to-hand, without going through CVS. Later, if/when the patch is committed, CVS gets upset if it sees patches that have already been applied. Just to generate accurate patches, contributors need to keep around two copies of each affected file: our latest version, and the latest cvs version. There are, of course, ways of doing this, but it's a whole lot more error-prone than just saying cvs update ; cvs diff -u Bottom line: Two points: -- Flightgear is not the first project to face this situation. It would be nice to have some decent tools to support a project-within-project development model. -- In the meantime, don't be surprised if there are occasional misunderstandings about what is covered by this-or-that patch. Patient communication will be required. - Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your opinions on IT business topics through brief surveys - and earn cash http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.phpp=sourceforgeCID=DEVDEV ___ Flightgear-devel mailing list Flightgear-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/flightgear-devel
Re: [Flightgear-devel] communication; project-within-project
following john's comment, have you developers ever think about a switch over subversion? just a question, no flames please... - Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your opinions on IT business topics through brief surveys - and earn cash http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.phpp=sourceforgeCID=DEVDEV ___ Flightgear-devel mailing list Flightgear-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/flightgear-devel
Re: [Flightgear-devel] communication; project-within-project
On 01/29/2007 06:15 PM, Martin Spott wrote: I don't think there's a real solution to this problems that adresses all your concerns. /All/ my concerns? As the saying goes: Do not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. I don't expect a SCM system to end world hunger. But there are things it can and should do. FlightGear certainly is a bit special in that strinkingly few people 'manage' a pretty complex piece of software and these people are a limited resource, but what do you actually want to do about this ? As another saying goes: Never bring a knife to a gunfight. When the flightgear project began, CVS was the only reasonable option. That's no longer the case. It may be that FlightGear has outgrown CVS. As far as I can tell, converting from CVS to SVN would be basically just a newer, shinier knife. /Some/ of the points mentioned earlier in this discussion would be addressed by git. Among other things, git has the notion of staging area, which allows contributions to be tested before they are merged into the HEAD. Git has a track record of use in some good-sized projects. having a community of people that _really_ support each other in a group of more than just two would be beneficient for FlightGear. Yes. In fact what people call a community typically characterizes a group of people that turns into complete silence when the call for voluntary work is announced ;-) There are other factors at work demotivating would-be contributors. - Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your opinions on IT business topics through brief surveys - and earn cash http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.phpp=sourceforgeCID=DEVDEV ___ Flightgear-devel mailing list Flightgear-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/flightgear-devel
