Could we please open a new git branch?

[Myriam Schweingruber]

Hi all,

On Wed, Sep 8, 2010 at 17:41, Lydia Pintscher <lydia at kde.org> wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 8, 2010 at 15:33, Myriam Schweingruber <myriam at kde.org> wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> since we have several bugs causing a probably longer delay of 2.3.2,
>> could we please open a second branch, called "testing" for example?
>>
>> The advantages would be the following:
>>
>> * we could commit the SoC projects code and start testing
>> * several people have fixes waiting in their branches, causing either
>> new strings or bringing new features
>> * we would start using git to its real potential. Currently almost
>> everybody uses several branches and has to share his branches
>> elsewhere, a testing branch would really be useful to everybody.
>>
>> Of course this is not intended to become the main branch, but will
>> remain the testing branch, and enhance collaboration. Merging is of
>> course always possible once a feature is tested and doesn't break the
>> build.
>>
>> I can't see any inconveniences.
>>
>>
>> Regards, Myriam
>
> We've had this discussion before at least twice.
> If the delay is more than a few days we have other huger problems.

That we already have, Amarok is pretty much falling apart in many
places not maintained anymore. The current problems are on the other
hand caused by plasma bugs, and we try to find workarounds as the
users will blame us for these problems, telling them it is not our
fault is not something they will buy...

> If it is just a few days we can wait that bit more to get it all in
> master imho. Either way opening development in another place again
> won't help get the current version release-ready any time soon.

If you prefer, we can open a testing branch after the release of
2.3.2, but a testing branch is needed anyway,  the whole power of git
is that we could use several branches. Especially for the SoC project
it would be good if we had a testing branch as it would greatly
improve collaboration, and I am sure the other devs would appreciate a
lot, too.

This is not only for now, but to keep it permanently.

Since all devs already use personal branches this is not "opening
development in another place again", I don't see how a testing branch
accessible for all would have any influence on getting the next stable
version out of the door, if they don't work on the current bugs
anyway. On the contrary, it would give access to the testing branches
to more people, and allow us to spot errors earlier in the development
cycle. This could as well prevent the current state of having 39 open
crash reports and a total of over 300 bugs...

One other reason to have that testing branch is that we would
certainly avoid a lot of duplicate work. I for example have 2
additional branches with either new strings for tooltips or fixed
typos and in18n corrections. Currently it is well possible somebody
else does that, too, and this is unnecessary redundant work, as we are
incapable to see if more than one person is working on the same
things. It would also greatly enhance our project management, which is
sub-par, so let's at least make first steps to get this better.

And we could get patches in immediately, another big advantage of a
testing branch :)


Regards, Myriam.

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