An uncomfortable question

Andrew C. Greenberg werdna at mucow.com
Wed Oct 23 20:08:10 UTC 2002


Are we forking without actually realizing --or admitting to ourselves-- 
that we are forking?

We seem to have active and ongoing development along one (non-module 
based) line against a previous Golden release version (3.2), and active 
and ongoing development against another (module-based) line -- our 
present test pilot alpha.  As understood, the prevalent reason why this 
is so derives in large part from the fact that it is intractable to use 
earlier changesets with our module-based test pilot image.  This is not 
a problem that is going to go away.

We are not very close to a new golden release, and the longer we have 
parallel changeset developments, the harder and harder it will be to 
merge these into a consistent whole.  Many of us would like to do 
ongoing development that is unrelated to and does not depend upon the 
modules, and are uncertain how (singly or dually), and even whether, to 
distribute our code until all is well and settled in this awkward and 
odd arena.

For my part, I am uncertain what images I should be working with, and 
how many different versions (and upgrade levels) I should keep around.  
And I'm a fairly seasoned Squeaker.

Does anybody have a plan on this point?  Is it going to be possible to 
reconcile these worlds safely?  If not, shouldn't we just declare the 
fork a fork, or either adopt the new and dump the old, or dump the new 
in favor of another?

My concern is that if we all sit on the fence too long, it will be too 
late.

I could well be all wet.  (I hope so.)  In the meanwhile, it seems like 
a very uncomfortable question.




More information about the Squeak-dev mailing list