[Biopython-dev] biopython on github

[Peter]

Hi all,

I'm thinking a news post on
http://news.open-bio.org/news/category/obf-projects/biopython/ about
version control would be a good idea at this point.  How about this -
keywords like git, subversion and the other project names would be
links:

<start draft>
Title: Biopython and version control systems

Originally, all the OBF hosted projects used CVS for their source code
repositories.  At the start of 2008, BioPerl and BioJava moved over to
Subversion (SVN), followed by BioSQL.  Biopython was originally going
to do the same, but this didn't actually happen.  Having all the Bio*
projects using the same version control system would have simplified
server administration for the OBF, but wouldn't have actually made
that much difference to Biopython development.  Discussion has since
shifted towards next generation distributed version control systems
like git or bazaar.

Quote from Linus Torvalds,
<italics>
The slogan of Subversion for a while was ‘CVS done right’, or
something like that, and if you start with that kind of slogan,
there's nowhere you can go. There is no way to do CVS right
</italics>

In addition to creating the Linux kernel, Linus Torvalds more recently
wrote git, a prominent example of a distributed version control
system.  Rather than switching from CVS to SVN, the BioRuby project
choose instead to use git, hosted on github.  Biopython is considering
doing something similar - using a distributed version control system
like git should make it easier for potential Biopython contributors to
manage their own local copies of Biopython under version control.

Initially for evaluation purposes only, Giovanni and Bartek have setup
a Biopython branch on GitHub, which will automatically be updated from
the OBF hosted Biopython CVS repository [Link to wiki page].  If this
is favorably received, then moving Biopython from CVS to git seems
likely at some point this year.

Peter on behalf of the Biopython developers
<end draft>

I hope this has everyone's approval... if not please reply here so we
can revise this before it gets posted.  Note that I've avoided getting
into specifics here, such as hosting arrangements, as the details will
go out of date.

Peter