[Bioperl-l] bioperl-dev or branch?

[Hilmar Lapp]

Moving this question to the BioPerl list, which is where we need to  
discuss this I think. Can someone refresh my memory on what the  
Bioperl-dev repository is or was meant for? It doesn't seem documented  
on the wiki.

My (admittedly vague) recollection is that bioperl-dev is basically  
for highly experimental changes or functionality.

I'm not clear why everything else shouldn't go either into the main  
trunk or into a branch. If there is a realistic expectation for  
something to be folded into the main trunk sooner or later, what would  
be the reasons for not putting it into a branch of the main  
repository? If we are putting it into a separate repository, we're  
waiving a lot of svn's support for merging and resolving concurrent  
edits.

I would also go actually go a step further and suggest that even if  
this GSoC project starts out on a branch (which I can see good reasons  
for, such as eliminating fear to disrupt something), there should be a  
plan to move to main trunk before the end of the project. We've had a  
good tradition in BioPerl of developing directly on the main trunk. It  
sometimes leads to occasional disruptions when lots of tests seem  
failing, but it also encourages development discipline and make new  
code to melt into the BioPerl code base without requiring any extra  
steps by someone.

Any and all thoughts or comments welcome and appreciated!

	-hilmar

On May 21, 2009, at 11:26 AM, Chase Miller wrote:

> This brings me to a question about where I should have my code  
> repository.  Originally, I was going to use Bioperl-dev, but it was  
> brought to my attention that that repository does not normally  
> receive daily updates and it might not be the right place for my day  
> to day development.  An alternative would be to use something like  
> google code on a daily basis and commit to Bioperl-dev on a weekly  
> basis.

-- 
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: Hilmar Lapp  -:-  Durham, NC  -:- hlapp at duke dot edu :
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