From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Robert Anderson" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: emacs test suite Date: Sat, 18 Jan 2003 20:57:28 -0500 Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1042941690 7993 80.91.224.249 (19 Jan 2003 02:01:30 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 02:01:30 +0000 (UTC) Return-path: Original-Received: from quimby.gnus.org ([80.91.224.244]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 18a4m9-00024n-00 for ; Sun, 19 Jan 2003 03:01:29 +0100 Original-Received: from monty-python.gnu.org ([199.232.76.173]) by quimby.gnus.org with esmtp (Exim 3.12 #1 (Debian)) id 18a4wJ-0000hA-00 for ; Sun, 19 Jan 2003 03:12:00 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.10.13) id 18a4mK-0001gV-01 for emacs-devel@quimby.gnus.org; Sat, 18 Jan 2003 21:01:40 -0500 Original-Received: from list by monty-python.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.10.13) id 18a4lA-00014A-00 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 18 Jan 2003 21:00:28 -0500 Original-Received: from mail by monty-python.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.10.13) id 18a4iS-0007PM-00 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 18 Jan 2003 20:57:41 -0500 Original-Received: from pimout1-ext.prodigy.net ([207.115.63.77]) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.10.13) id 18a4iH-0007BE-00 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 18 Jan 2003 20:57:29 -0500 Original-Received: from www4.prodigy.net (www4-ext.prodigy.net [207.115.61.60]) id h0J1vSXI409320 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 18 Jan 2003 20:57:28 -0500 Original-To: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1b5 Precedence: list List-Id: Emacs development discussions. List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Archive: List-Unsubscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+emacs-devel=quimby.gnus.org@gnu.org Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:10861 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:10861 --- Original Message --- From: Richard Stallman To: "Robert Anderson" Subject: Re: emacs test suite > If emacs used a distributed version control system, this would > not be a problem. > >We use CVS--isn't that suitable? It's reasonable, but has some limitations. For example, I am potentially interested in maintaining a set of tests, but you are not convinced of the utility of them and so you'd rather not have them in your CVS - so you don't give me write access. That's fine, and perfectly reasonable. However, that puts me in a bad spot, because although I can follow your work by updating from CVS, I cannot "commit" my work (the tests) if it involves changes to any files or dirs in your CVS repo. So I am stuck, and likely to give up, because I have hit a bottleneck in CVS which only allows me to work with your sources if you have given me write access to your repository. I can make simple local changes, but I can't version control my own work. If instead I had a branch that I could store locally (this is the "distributed" part), I could version control my own work, continue to incorporate your changes, and as it became more useful, you could at some point decide that you'd like to merge my branch into your sources - and since I've been updating from your repo, that would be a relatively smooth process (as opposed to what CVS would allow: for me to import into a local CVS repo at some moment in time, and develop from there. Then, when ready to merge, all of the work that had occured in the main repo from the time I imported would have to be carefully recreated to prevent regressions from the merge). Not to mention the performance boon of development from local copies of the repo... Bob