[development] Docs about Drupal + CVS: reminder and call for help

[Derek Wright]

Hello world,

I've had a bunch of conversations recently where I had to (re)explain  
aspects of Drupal's usage of CVS, how it fits in with projects and  
releases, etc.  This message is for 2 things: 1) to remind the  
developer community about the existing resources, and 2) to solicit  
input for improvement.

1) What's there now:

http://drupal.org/handbook/cvs
The root of the d.o CVS handbooks.  Tons (probably too much) of great  
info.

http://drupal.org/handbook/cvs/quickstart
An attempt at a very concise summary of the main things you need to  
know to get up to speed quickly.  Lots of even senior Drupal  
developers apparently don't know this page exists, so everyone should  
check it out.

http://drupal.org/node/197584
"Releases and Update Status" -- a page about how the release system  
interacts with update_status (thanks, GHOP!), including links to the  
talk I gave at BADCamp about this topic.  No, it's not a Lullabot  
podcast, but it's almost as good. ;)


2) Call for help:

I'll be the first to admit that what we have is confusing, and the  
docs aren't ideal.  The problem is that I know all this stuff, so  
it's hard for me to document it well from the perspective of someone  
who doesn't. ;)  So, now's your chance to help make it better:

- What do you think the docs need to be more clear?

- I just started http://drupal.org/handbook/cvs/faq -- what should be  
in it?  See what's there already, and add comments to the page if you  
have other suggestions.

- Other than documentation, what could be done to make all this more  
smooth and effortless?


My deepest thanks go out to nancyw and add1sun, who've agreed to  
watch this thread and help wrangle suggestions into concrete  
progress.  My hands are very full getting project* ported to D6 so we  
can upgrade d.o, and other related tasks.

Thanks,
-Derek (dww)


p.s. Warning: if someone replies to this thread with "svn", "git", or  
"bzr", you'll be very sorry. ;) This isn't confusing because of CVS  
itself, it's because revision control in general is confusing if  
you're not used to it.  Drupal's choice of revision control system is  
not up for discussion now (believe me, you'll know when it is).   
Thanks in advance for not wasting everyone's time.