[drupal-devel] Re: [contributions(DRUPAL-4-5):sheldon]

[Sheldon Rampton]

Goba wrote:

>The FAQ and the contributors guide outlines the commands used to
>checkout, commit, tag, etc. the files. The above confusions are the very
>reason that the php.net projects suggest contributors TO NOT USE visual
>CVS tools. They always mess up. All the time.

Actually, the Drupal contributors guide advises Macintosh users TO 
use CVL as their CVS tool:
http://drupal.org/node/2972

In fact, that's why I started using the damn thing in the first 
place. I WAS trying to follow the instructions in the contributor's 
guide.

The contributors guide also advises Windows users to use TortoiseCVS 
as their front end:
http://drupal.org/node/635

Dries wrote:

>Does that mean all Drupal 4.5 releases are messed up now?  Err.

I don't know. When this happened, my CVL console spat out a bunch of 
messages that looked like errors or refusals. Just now I've tried 
spot-checking the releases page (drupal.org/project/releases), and 
all of the projects I've looked at show "latest release" dates from 
prior to my accident. (For that matter, even my interwiki project 
still shows a latest release date of December 31, 2004. I've tried 
several times to move the tags just on the interwiki project and 
can't get it to take.)

It looks to me like either no real harm was done, or else someone 
caught it quickly and fixed it. However, I think it's clear that I'm 
far from expert in using CVS, so please don't take my word for 
anything.

Based on my experience, I would recommend revising the contributor's 
guide so it doesn't advise Macintosh users to use CVL. Since I don't 
use Windows, I don't know whether continuing to recommend TortoiseCVS 
is a good idea, but if your goal is to ensure that contributors know 
what they're doing in CVS, I think it would be better to simply 
recommend using command-line access via a Unix terminal, and to 
provide a link to a good tutorial.

--Sheldon