Collaboration (was Re: [webkit-dev] Pulling together on WebKit Mobile)

[Mark Rowe]

On 12/01/2008, at 07:55, Mike Emmel wrote:

> I'd like for it to be very easy to contribute a git tree with commit
> rights that was acceptable to the WebKit community
> would make it very easy to create branches for bug fixes and and as a
> work area.
> And it makes it easy to allow outstanding patches to track the head.
>
> I found the current process of submitting a patch having the head
> change breaking the patch resubmitting
> etc etc to be clumsy.  If the patch was on a git tree that matched the
> head the branch then then applied.
>
> I feel the workflow for patch submission could be made a lot easier
> with this approach.
> Especially for complex issues.

The process you describe is vague and untested in the context of  
WebKit.  The process we have now works reasonably well ("well enough")  
for a large number of developers.  There are some situations, none of  
which are particularly common, in which it is less efficient than it  
could be: two or more developers working together to implement a  
single feature is the one that springs to mind.  Addressing these  
situations is clearly desirable, but I don't believe it's as simple as  
saying that git will magically fix things.  It brings with it a new  
set of problems that most WebKit developers are not familiar with, and  
is much slower than SVN when interacting with an SVN repository, and  
currently has poor Windows support.  Adopting git in a semi-"official"  
manner like you mention would require improving tool support and  
documentation such that any WebKit developer could deal with the new  
workflow if needed.  In itself, this is not a small task.

> I've got other small projects I'd like to share with others before
> they are ready to submit to the mainline.
> And more important if others are interested I'd like to see what they
> are working on without having to discover
> git repos scattered randomly about the internet.

A minimal-effort solution could be to use <http://repo.or.cz/> ,and  
create a wiki page to catalogue the locations of git repositories that  
other developers are using.  A quick glance shows that Holger has a  
repository on repo.or.cz, and there appears to be a GNUstep port  
hosted there too.  As best I can tell, this light-weight approach  
would fulfil your immediate need.

> For me having this sort of work area would be very useful.

I don't disagree that it would be useful.  Part of the point of Git is  
that it is distributed in nature.  This allows individuals to use git  
if they desire, and to experiment and come up with a workflow that  
fits with the existing WebKit tools and processes.  Once tools have  
improved and a common idea of the right workflow to use has evolved,  
we should consider looking into adopting Git more "officially".


- Mark

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