Re: [boost] [1.37.0] branches/release open for merges

From: Robert Ramey (ramey_at_[hidden])
Date: 2008-08-20 17:23:28

Gennaro Prota wrote:
> I'll see how it goes. Manually or not, it's a lot of bookkeeping, and
> requires time. Since I'm only maintaining dynamic_bitset, I'd expect a
> few number of interventions, thus I'm probably the wrong guy to
> complain. But it seems to me that being a Boost developer is going to
> be a full-time job, really.

In my view, the current system is a huge improvement over
the previous one.  It wastes a lot less time.

>(With the previous repository policy, I
> could make modifications to a library when I had some spare time, look
> at the regression reports and forget it.

>Now, instead, I have also to
> wait for the release branch to be open

The release branch should be always open.  Once you're happy
with all the test results you can merge from the trunk into the
"next release", or "rease ready" or whatever its called branch.

This gives the effect of developing on a branch (the trunk)
that is actually tested by all the testers.  Doing on a branch
is a lot of excess work and one's stuff doesn't get tested.
Its necesary for big changes and new libraries, but its
overkill for smaller changes and maintainence.

This latest release has been much less painful than
previous ones with just a few snafus.  And best of all,
these snafus are related to small number of specific libraries and
tools rather than all over the place.  Now attention
seems to be getting focused on these issues whereas
before they got lost in all the noise.

I'll take this opportunity to beat my drum on
my proposed improvement to the current proces:

I would like to see the testers start with the Release Branch.
for each library which has been changed, the related directories
are switched to the Trunk and the tests are run.  After the test
the libraries directories would be switched back to the release
branch.  This would give the devoloper a clear picture of the
result of his changes independent of any other changes made
by other developers.

Release Testers would retest whenever one or more libraries
are merged into the release.  Otherwise the procedure would
be the same.

Robert Ramey