Hi there,

  I often wondered about the development model used by the POV-Team, and
only now dare I ask about it.  I haven't found a clear definition of how it
works, and I would like to.

  What I guessed from what I read so far is that the POV-Team is the
central development point, and any other person developping patches for
POV-Ray is completely independent.  Even if some bug fixes are used by the
POV-Team, there is apparently no real transparency, and the releases are
done only when the code is considered to be bug-free and stable.

  I'd like to introduce the idea of a slight modification of this model.  I
don't know how the POV-Team manages their sources, but I think they
probably use some kind of CVS.  So, why not use some kind of a read-only
CVS repository to keep all the unstable versions available to anyone who
wants them?  This, coupled with CVS-web, could be a much more efficient way
to keep everybody informed about the advances of the program.  And I'm
pretty sure one can commit changes with CVS that won't be taken into
account in the main development branch until validation by some authority.
Of course, the Official Releases stay under control of the Team.

  This is just a suggestion.  Plenty of programs are developped that way
(including big programs: Netscape, FreeBSD, egcs, The GIMP, and CVS itself
for instance), and their development is the most active and efficient I
know.  There is always one current release, but all the development
versions of all the files stay available.

  Well...  My two yen.  I'd like to know your opinion on that, though.

Roland.
-- 
Les francophones m'appellent Roland Mas,
English speakers call me Rowlannd' Mass,
Nihongode hanasu hitoha [Lolando Masu] to iimasu.
Choisissez ! Take your pick ! Erande kudasai !

Post a reply to this message