[cells-devel] The "No CVS" Rule :)

[Thomas F. Burdick]

Kenny Tilton writes:

 > Thomas F. Burdick wrote:
 > 
 > >Kenny Tilton writes:
 > > > Just to be clear, the "No CVS" rule relates to avoiding the bleeding 
 > > > edge, not anything to with CVS per se, yes? Or is it that the CVS stuff 
 > > > is not packaged as thoughtfully to build right out of the box?
 > >
 > >Right -- depending on the project, the source in CVS can be almost
 > >guaranteed to be broken.  That's just an issue with using the
 > >development branch.
 >
 > Lawdy, where I come from that is grounds for a firing squad. By which I 
 > mean, the group's source code repository is what everyone works against, 
 > so lord help you if you commit broken code.

Some projects are horrible that way, and "broken" actually means
"doesn't work" -- with open source, there aren't any firing squads
(just project forks).  I try to avoid such messes :).  With better run
projects, the bleeding edge works on at least the developers' systems.

 > OTOH, the config/make stuff I guess is precisely the kind of thing I can 
 > see falling through the cracks since developers will have stable build 
 > environments in place and would not be using the CVS config/make stuff.
 > 
 > I guess my question is, did anyone see me making a mistake in how I was 
 > trying to build? For example, should there have been a file called 
 > "configure" (no extension)? Or was I supposed to make one with autoconf? 
 > Or...

configure scripts usually aren't in the source tree, because they're
generated by something else.  So, look for a configure.ac, in which
case you use autoconf, or look for a script, like makeconfig or (in
this case) autogen.sh.

 > >That's how it's supposed to work.  You could have more useful comments
 > >to your commits ....
 >
 > I'll do my best once I get a solid base of cvs code. Unfortunately
 > nothing is safe when I take up a keyboard (ie, I refactor /a lot/),
 > so by the time I get everything working again, nothing else does.

At a previous job, insufficient CVS comments would get you in trouble.
If people were going to go out after work, you'd usually hear, "is
everyone ready?"  "I just have to go through todays diffs, so I can
check them in."  "We'll meet you at the bar."

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