From: DervishD <iaudio_at_dervishd.net>
Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2007 17:01:09 +0200

    Hi Jonas :)

 * Jonas Häggqvist <rasher_at_rasher.dk> dixit:
> Development now continues in trunk, and when bugs are found that are present
> in the stable branch, they should be backported (carefully) and
> point-releases should be made (perhaps depending on the severity of the bug,
> either immediately or once a few bugs have been fixed). Only bug fixes go
> into the release branch - if necessary as work-arounds rather than proper
> fixes if the fix is too involved and risks introducing new bugs.

    IMHO, this is the only source of problems I see in the model you
propose. In order for this to work, the differences (e.g. new features)
between the stable branch and the trunk must be kept small. This means:

    - Only one feature at a time. As long as the feature "works", the
trunk becomes the stable branch again. Bad, very bad, because a current
feature would stop the development of lots of features.

    - Fix only minor bugs, that will be easily backported to the stable
branch. I think this is what you had in mind. The point releases will be
just bugfix releases and people will upgrade without fear: nothing
should be broken in point releases as they only contain minor bugfixes.

    - Fix all bugs and give the backporters hell. Nice if they don't
know where you live ;))

    The problem with backporting is that from time to time, writing a
proper backport of some bug fixes will be just impossible. I don't think
this will be ever happen in rockbox as the internal "framework" (sorry,
I can't think of a better name) API is stable and small. I mean, this is
not the linux kernel, where a bugfix in 2.6.x won't be easily backported
to 2.4.x due to architectural changes.

    While I don't have much time to contribute major chunks of code, I
think I can do backports, as long as they are not VERY big and complex.
Think of it as the "patch monkey" in the linux kernel.

    Raúl Núñez de Arenas Coronado

-- 
Linux Registered User 88736 | http://www.dervishd.net
It's my PC and I'll cry if I want to... RAmen!

Received on 2007-08-09