Thoughts on contributor workflow
Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2010 3:39 pm
The current workflow how code contributions find their way into the official repository is not optimal. That can be seen for example in the number of tickets in trac which have a patch attached but the patch hasn't been accepted yet. Others develop code in their own repositories (such as on github) and don't even submit the patches. The goal of this discussion is to figure out how to optimize the workflow so that contributions get into the official repository in a timely manner.
This discussion was started in the official IRC channel on freenode a couple days ago. Since then many people have expressed their thoughts and ideas about the current development model and how they would like to see it improved. We haven't agreed on much so far, but it's pretty clear at this point that something needs to be done, and even jordan isn't too opposed to this change. What we agreed on is that there should be an officially sanctioned repository where the 'next' version is prepared. That repository would be managed by a broader set of developers who prepare the features and so make it easier for jordan to decide which features are mature enough to be included in the next release. It would also act as a central place where users could find out about and easily try the new features (even those which haven't been deemed mature enough to be included in the next stable release).
There are workflows which are hard to impossible to implement with the current SCM (SVN). But please try to keep the discussion about SCM at a minimum at this point. Don't forget that there is much more to the switch than just changing the SCM (trac would all have to be updated to play nicely with the new SCM, people would have to learn it etc)!
I'd like to invite everyone who has contributed code to the project and intends to do so in the future to join this discussion.
This discussion was started in the official IRC channel on freenode a couple days ago. Since then many people have expressed their thoughts and ideas about the current development model and how they would like to see it improved. We haven't agreed on much so far, but it's pretty clear at this point that something needs to be done, and even jordan isn't too opposed to this change. What we agreed on is that there should be an officially sanctioned repository where the 'next' version is prepared. That repository would be managed by a broader set of developers who prepare the features and so make it easier for jordan to decide which features are mature enough to be included in the next release. It would also act as a central place where users could find out about and easily try the new features (even those which haven't been deemed mature enough to be included in the next stable release).
There are workflows which are hard to impossible to implement with the current SCM (SVN). But please try to keep the discussion about SCM at a minimum at this point. Don't forget that there is much more to the switch than just changing the SCM (trac would all have to be updated to play nicely with the new SCM, people would have to learn it etc)!
I'd like to invite everyone who has contributed code to the project and intends to do so in the future to join this discussion.