[ANN] Monticello Versioning

Avi Bryant avi at beta4.com
Wed Jul 23 08:42:37 UTC 2003


http://map1.squeakfoundation.org/sm/packagebyname/monticello

I'd like (along with Colin Putney) to announce a new release of the
Monticello versioning system.  Although partly an evolution of the earlier
DVS and Monticello work, which enabled Squeak code to be managed with
CVS, this is the first release to realistically support concurrent
development in Squeak without depending on external tools.

To quote what I just wrote on the Swiki
(http://minnow.cc.gatech.edu/squeak/1287), Monticello provides:

#  declarative modelling of Smalltalk code (Monticello is based on
whole-package snapshots, not change sets)
# dependency checking on load (if a prerequisite like a superclass is
missing, your image is left untouched)
# smart package updating (migrate an image from one snapshot to another,
performing the necessary additions and removals)
# optimistic branching and merging (reconcile concurrent modifications to
a package, with conflict detection and resolution)
# distributed versioning (store a package in as many repositories as you
want, moving version files freely between them, without losing branching
info)

We think this is a major advance for those doing team development in
Squeak, and encourage people to try it out as soon as possible, but like
any first release there's a lot missing.  We'd really like to hear
feedback and suggestions for future functionality.

Cheers,
Avi

Note to those using older versions of Monticello: first, my guess is that
you will want to start with a clean image, as a lot has changed with this
release.  Second, the old mode of using Monticello (fileout to .mc files
to be managed by CVS) has now been separated into the MonticelloCVS
package, which loads on top of the base Monticello package.  However, if
you're not going to use the new, native versioning features, there's not a
whole lot of benefit to upgrading in the first place.




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