[Zope-Coders] How to get going :-)

[Brian Lloyd]

> I'm not familiar with working in the 'activity branch' pattern, so I
> could do with it being explicitly spelled out for me.
> 
> Let's take as an example a tiny fix I could do to the href
> implementation in stx: currently, you're not allowed puctuation such
> as '@' in the name of your link.
> 
> To confirm: this is a 'no-brainer' and should be checked directly into
> both the current branch, and the trunk.

Right, and note the fix in the CHANGES.txt on the current branch.


> I'm not clear whether the recommended way of working in this case is
> to create a new branch in CVS especially for this fix, or if I should be
> checking directly into the trunk and branch.

For something this small, it is a matter of personal preference. 
For people who have gotten branch Zen, it can actually be less 
typing, less work and less error-prone to use a branch.

Some would rather just make the change in both appropriate places. 
As long as the fix get into both places and is correct, it's 
really up to you.

FWIW - I find the easiest way for me to work is to maintain two 
CVS checkouts: one of the trunk and one of the current release
branch. When I fix a tiny bug (say in Folder.py), I fix the 
bug and update CHANGES.txt in the branch sandbox, do a cvs commit,
then cd to the trunk sandbox and merge the change to Folder.py 
right from the current release branch:

cvs up -kk -j Zope-2_4-branch Folder.py

That merges in the fix I just made (so I don't have to type it 
again and maybe make a mistake), so then I just commit the 
Folder.py on the trunk and I'm done.


> Another point I'd like confirmation on: changes should be checked into
> the current main branch and the trunk.  Are there ever any other
> branches we would need to be aware of, or is it the responsability of
> the branch owners periodically to merge changes from the branch off
> which they have branched?  (This paragraph was brought to you by the
> word 'branch'.)

If you are collaborating with others on some non-trivial work, 
you might all choose to work on a particular branch that you've 
made, and someone on that team would be responsible for merging
the branch to the appropriate places when you are all done.

There are currently no other "official" branches that you need 
to be aware of other than the trunk and current release branch. 


> Finally, does *every* bug fix make it into CHANGES.txt, or should we
> use our judgement?  (I'm thinking typos obviously shoudn't, but my stx
> example probably should?  What about if I add a new comments to some
> obscure function?)

Use your own judgement, but it is generally good citizenship to 
make a note of things you've done (if for no other reason, other 
people can tell that you've already taken care of a problem 
without wading through CVS logs). Excruciating detail is not 
necessary. A note of "The docstrings in Magic.py were way too 
terse, so I rewrote many of them to be more clear" is fine.

As a side note, now that I can't hunt down every committer at 
his desk, please leave at least initials in your change entry 
(that includes committers here at ZC) :^)

> 
> P.S. who's the STX manager?

I suppose I am :(  Your fix is fine with me.


Brian Lloyd        brian@zope.com          
Zope Corporation   www.zope.com