Re: [RT] Are svn externals a good idea?

[Ralph Goers]

Sylvain Wallez wrote:


Ok. So do you have something better, or another way to organize the 
svn repository that would avoid to maintain parallel branches [1] of 
blocks.

Sylvain

My two cents.

In my experience it is awfully hard to avoid maintaining parallel 
branches no matter what the source control system.  This is simply 
because changes get introduced that are incompatible with maintaining 
backward compatibility. Now, a lot of the blocks are fairly static and 
might only get a few minor tweaks here or there, while others (which are 
precisely the ones you want to only have a single branch of) are 
constantly in a state of flux.  So you have a choice, you can tell users 
of a block that they shouldn't use it in a production environment 
because you want the freedom to change it (a really bad idea in my 
opinion) or you can maintain parallel branches so that users can be 
provided a measure of stability.

Ralph