Re: CVS repository synchronization for RefTeX

[Ralf Angeli <angeli@caeruleus.net>]

* Stefan Monnier (2006-12-29) writes:

>> maintenance of RefTeX will likely be continued by the AUCTeX project.
>> On the AUCTeX developers list it is currently being discussed how
>> maintenance of RefTeX will be done in its own CVS repository.
>
> How 'bout using the Emacs-CVS as *the* repository of RefTeX?

There will be standalone releases of RefTeX.  That means files for
building and installing RefTeX as well as files like README, INSTALL,
etc. would have to be added to Emacs' repository.  Those would mostly
be superfluous in an Emacs release and would have to be excluded from
pretest and release tarballs, unless they are considered only a minor
annoyance.

And we'll probably have to jump through some hoops for building
documentation and putting it into a RefTeX tarball as reftex.texi
currently is located in the man directory.

Then there might be the problem that RefTeX is not in a releasable
state at the time an Emacs release is about to happen.  Suppose I
would have had a major and risky change for RefTeX waiting to be
checked in about a year ago and held it back because Emacs is about to
be released.  I'd probably still not have it checked in.  Such a
situation nothing I'd be looking forward to.  Of course in an urgent
case one can back out such changes, but if you can avoid it ...

What about branching?  IIUC CVS branches can only be created for a
whole module.  Would it be okay to create a branch for all of Emacs if
one for RefTeX only were necessary?

Another issue might be that it will be harder for people to grab the
RefTeX sources from CVS if there is a fix they are interested in.  At
least with the current structure where the documentation is in a
different directory they'd have to check out the reftex directory (to
be created) and the documentation separately.

If RefTeX is to be maintained in Emacs' repository I'd actually like
to have all files (including documentation) in one dedicated
directory.

-- 
Ralf