D versionning

[Adam Wilson]

On Sun, 15 Jul 2012 18:11:12 -0700, Andrei Alexandrescu  
<SeeWebsiteForEmail at erdani.org> wrote:

> On 7/15/12 7:44 PM, Adam Wilson wrote:
>> I should note that we use this exact model for every project we have
>> where I work and that it is been highly successful at keeping those five
>> points of tension moderated. And our users can actually get work done
>> without waiting for weeks and months because thing X is just plain
>> broken, which in turn makes us look good. (Improving Loyalty)
>
> Allow me to propose something.
>
> Right now all dmd changes get merged in the head. Suppose we find a  
> volunteer in the community who is:
>
> 1. Highly motivated
>
> 2. With a good understanding of D
>
> 3. Expert with git
>
> 4. Reliable
>
> I wonder if it's possible that that person cherry-picks commits from  
> HEAD into two separate branches: bugfixes and unstable. It should be  
> easy to create installers etc. for those.
>
> If we see this works well and gathers steady interest, we can improve it  
> and make it the practice of the entire team.
>
> Would this be possible?
>
>
> Andrei

I like this, A LOT! This is a nice twist on the proposed model and I think  
it improves on the process. It certainly means that no release is  
predicated on the state of HEAD, which is a fantastic achievement. And  
this process certainly wasn't possible prior to git.

It also achieves to goal of separate branches for unstable work and stable  
bugfixes.

I may just co-opt this for my projects at work!

However, this is all predicated on finding such a person, of which few  
exist. But I would argue that it should NOT fall on to someone in the core  
team (Walter, Kenji, Braddr, Don, etc.), they should be working on the  
compiler HEAD.

There must be someone out there with decent knowledge of the internals and  
yet doesn't consider themselves core team, but the biggest them I think is  
going to be the time, which is why I think it shouldn't be a core team  
member.

Actually, here is another idea. How about we train someone who maybe has  
some experience with the compiler but might not know what to do in all  
situations. If they had direct access to Walter and the Core Team, they  
could be quickly brought up to speed on the job so to speak. And it would  
widen our potential volunteer poll.
Plus it would widen the number of team members who are deeply involved  
with the compiler. Reducing our bus-factor is always a very good thing.

If the core team was willing to accept an apprentice, then I would be  
willing to learn. As far as git goes, the only thing I don't have much  
experience with is reversions, the rest I can handle, we use git  
internally at work so it's very familiar to me. But I'd want to see if  
anyone else more qualified than I was willing to volunteer first!

-- 
Adam Wilson
IRC: LightBender
Project Coordinator
The Horizon Project
http://www.thehorizonproject.org/