Re: [boost] 1.34 Release Plan - an alternative view

From: Victor A. Wagner Jr. (vawjr_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-01-31 10:16:37

At 03:01 2006-01-30, David Abrahams wrote:
>"Victor A. Wagner Jr." <vawjr_at_[hidden]> writes:
>
> > At 09:24 2006-01-27, you wrote:
> >>"Robert Ramey" <ramey_at_[hidden]> writes:
> >>
> >> > David Abrahams wrote:
> >> >> "Robert Ramey" <ramey_at_[hidden]> writes:
> >> >
> >> >> The lack of atomic changes to the trunk and to branches makes it very
> >> >> difficult to capture a point in time when everything is passing.
> >> >
> >> > Exactly - that's the problem.
> >>
> >>That is solved by SVN.
> >
> > I wouldn't bet on it (well capturing the instant is how SVN works),
> > but it's irrelevant anyhow.
> > if you only "release" what on HEAD it doesn't matter than you cannot
> > synch w/ branches.
>
>I keep asking, if you only release what's on HEAD, how do you do point
>releases?

what's the "meaning" of a "point" release anyhow?  release numbers 
(names) are a marketing concept (so the collateral material can be 
produced).  They've _never_ had any relevance to software (other than 
some loose conventions which caused more problems than they were worth)

>And anyway, why this obsession with HEAD?  In SVN, it's just another
>branch.

In SVN, iirc, "numbers" are even further removed from any meaningful 
relationship for a "release"... but as for the "obsession" it's 
actually just a desire to keep people's fingers out of the regression 
testing process.  The more you make people mess with things, the more 
likely you'll have an error.  One of the points of automated testing 
is that you warp the development system so the test system doesn't 
have to be massaged every time something changes.

> > I've been saying for a little over a decade that dropping the "state"
> > from CVS was a mistake and this hammers it home more than anything
> > I've seen...but it's gone.  One trusts that the Subversion folks
> > weren't as blind.
>
>Sorry, I don't know what you mean.

http://wwwipd.ira.uka.de/~tichy/
the man who started it all, with RCS
reading what he had in mind back in the beginning (and implemented) 
is instructive.

>--
>Dave Abrahams
>Boost Consulting
>www.boost-consulting.com
>
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Victor A. Wagner Jr.      http://rudbek.com
The five most dangerous words in the English language:
               "There oughta be a law"