Branching retrospective question re KDE frameworks 5.x work from 2011 onwards.

[Paul Hammant]

In 2011, something bubbled to SlashDot from this community.

   https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/08/07/2128222/KDE-Frameworks-50-In-Development

   TL;DR: what branching strategy to adopt for the KDE 5.x work, given
a wish to:
   1) stay abreast of 4.x fixes/releases,
    and 2) not make the mistakes of the 3.x to 4.x effort (whatever they were).

May I ask what actually happened re branching, merging, cherry picks
(back and forth) and all that, and what veterans think about it all
looking back?

This is really a question for posterity. I blog about source control
related things.

If this is a hot potato (I hope not), then feel free to hit me by
email off the list. I intend to write the most high-esteem thing that
I can :)  Indeed, if there's anything to write up at all.

Thanks,

- Paul