[Zope3-dev] RFC: Guide for maintaining software in the Zope repository

[Philipp von Weitershausen]

We have 100+ packages that make up what used to be distributed as 
"Zope3". We have numerous more packages in svn.zope.org. Most of them 
are developed, released and distributed individually. We like to think 
this is a good thing (I certainly do). But currently we have a bit of a 
chaos [2]. It's not bad, but I fear without some guidance, it'll get worse.

Christian Theune recently wrote a document [1] in which he outlined how 
we should get to a development process and what topics it should touch. 
  This document is very hands-on and describes actions that should be 
taken to reach these goals. I've taken the liberty to jump ahead and 
write down some current practices:

http://svn.zope.org/*checkout*/Sandbox/philikon/foundation/maintaining-software.txt

What I've come up with is therefore not the development process that 
Christian is talking about, although it may certainly evolve into it (at 
this point, it doesn't cover all the topics Christian is talking about, 
for example). I consider it more of a "guide". That doesn't mean it 
can't be as official as a process.

I would like to get your comments on it. No matter what this evolves to, 
I wouldn't mind eventually seeing it set in stone with your blessings, 
so that the checkin police can use it as the highway code to issue 
tickets to anyone who's speeding on the repository lane.


P.S.: I'm addressing this to zope3-dev since neither Zope 2 nor the CMF 
are currently much affected by this, and these matters are much too 
hands-on for the foundation list.


[1] http://mail.zope.org/pipermail/foundation/2007-August/000396.html
[2] By chaos, I mean things like incoherent repository layout, missing 
decent package metadata, confusing release practices, missing release 
tags, etc.

-- 
http://worldcookery.com -- Professional Zope documentation and training