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From: Raymond Smith <zzrasmit at uqconnect.net>
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Subject: [H-GEN] Yet More CVS
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[ Humbug *General* list - semi-serious discussions about Humbug and  ]
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On 3 Dec 2001, Jason Henry Parker wrote:
> Paul Gearon <pag at PISoftware.com> writes:
> > While I personally like CVS, it doesn't suit the style that the kernel
> > maintainers have developed over the years.  Linus commented that several
> > people will often work on a particular part of the code, and it's then his
> > job to pick and choose which should go in (with occasional modifications).
> > This starts to get difficult in cvs when lots of people are trying to make
> > contradictory changes, and Linus wants to see them all.
>
> Using CVS (indeed, any sort of version control) does not require that
> every developer have write access to the repository.

True -- but it does imply a significant change in development style.

My first experience of CVS came after using RCS on large commercial
projects. When using RCS which has a 'lock-then-edit-then-commit' approach
there was a lot more coordination of developers up-front. There was also
immediate feedback when you found someone unexpected 'in your part' of the
source tree.

The main effect of this was that people would be assigned different
portions of the code as 'theirs' for some period and people coordinated
closely when it came to changes between these portions. Indeed it is not
possible for things to be otherwise with RCS.

Of course this is completely inappropriate if your developers cannot
quickly and reliably communicate, or if the project cannot be easily
partitioned. Hence CVS.

Projects that use CVS are more likely to have an 'XP' approach where
developers are not only allowed but expected to play around all over the
source tree. This approach is encorage by CVS where you can freely hack
around your checkout and then cope with conflicts latter at check in. But
CVS has then lost the 'forced cordination' aspect of RCS.

So I can understand Linus wanting to avoid CVS if what he wants is tightly
coordinated changes to a single source base.

Cheers,

Raymond
---
raymond at humbug.org.au   Just once, I'd like to quote someone famous in
			my .sig and spell their name right -- Mi.


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