[SCM TRANSITION] Re: Proposal: move Randr protocol and library to git

[Kevin E Martin]

On Tue, Apr 18, 2006 at 02:20:24PM -0400, Adam Jackson wrote:
> On Tuesday 18 April 2006 13:22, Egbert Eich wrote:
> > Roland Scheidegger writes:
> >  > I don't really think it's important if everything is moved at once,
> >  > however I very much agree that it would be painful if some parts moved
> >  > to OTHER scms. If some parts stay in cvs for now that's not too bad,
> >  > everyone knows how to use it anyway.
> >
> > That the number of SCMs starts to proliferate is really my main
> > concern.
> 
> Anyone who tries to migrate to an SCM that is not comparably capable to git 
> can find hosting elsewhere.  This is a short list.

I think what this thread is converging on is that we've got an SCM
transition in progress and it's partially done at this point, but it's
not clear what to do to complete the transition.  Here are my thoughts
on this issue, some of which has already been mentioned by others in
this thread (which I'll echo here).

The first and I think the most important question that we seem to be
dancing around is what SCM to go with.  Since there is already quite a
bit of momentum behind git, I would think that git is the one that we
will transition everything to.  I _really_ don't want to end up in a
situation where we have multiple SCMs that we have to navigate in order
to work on X.  If no objections are raised, then I think we should
simply complete the transition from cvs to git.

The next question is: when should this transition happen?  Since we are
in the middle of a release, I would recommend holding off on converting
the remaining modules until after 7.1 -- releases are hard enough to get
people to test without having to battle the SCM at the same time.  The
7.1 release is about one month away and that's not very long to wait.
Also, if someone feels strongly that they cannot wait until after 7.1,
then they should negotiate with the 7.1 release manager (ajax).

The next question is: how -- all-at-once or piecemeal?  I took the lead
on the modularization effort, wrote a plan for how to make it happen
all-at-once, convinced enough people to help me execute that plan and
then worked really hard to make it all happen.  If someone steps forward
to take the lead for this SCM transition, then they will have the
opportunity do the same -- this is just how our developer community
works.  However, if no one steps forward to lead, then I expect that by
default the transition will happen piecemeal.

My hope is that there is enough interest in the transition that it can
be completed in time for the first 7.2 RC, but I have not done any of
the conversion work so far, so I don't have data to back up that hope.
Perhaps Keith can comment on whether or not it seems feasible.

Kevin