[webkit-dev] WebKit Wishes

[Žan Doberšek]

On Wed, Jan 30, 2013 at 10:28 PM, Eric Seidel <eric at webkit.org> wrote:
> I wish it were easy to work on feature branches.
>
> We have no good solution for features.  For one-patch features, you do them
> on your own.  For larger, you maybe use github or most likely you just land
> on trunk behind a #define.  None of these have worked well.  Some of this is
> the limits of SVN, but it should be trivial for someone to work on a new
> feature a long time, w/o endangering trunk or having massive merge pain
> every day.  Other projects can do this.  So should we.  This is both
> impeding progress, and destabilizing trunk.
>

I like the idea of developing larger features or multi-patch changes
on a branch.

Relating this with the next two wishes, I'd support this approach if
the whole patchset would be tested on trunk for every port with every
change that's made. The port maintainers (even those working on small
ports) could then fix any build failures or make changes to the
platform-specific code as necessary to make the merging of the branch
a minimal annoyance for everyone. Similarly, when the work on the
branch is deemed finished and there are still ports that would break
upon merging, a sensible time frame, for instance 2 work days, would
be given for the port maintainers to come up with fixes before merging
the branch regardless of the consequences.

The point I'd like to expose is that when using branches, landing
broken branches on broken trunk leads nowhere. That's why it's
important to maintain a building and working trunk, but give all the
ports the possibility of fixing any outstanding issues in the branch
before merging, so the trunk doesn't break (and the breakage loop is
entered).


Regards,
-Z