[development] Splitting up patches

[Gabor Hojtsy]

On Fri, 25 Aug 2006, Nedjo Rogers wrote:
> Maybe to successfully break up large improvements we need an approach 
> something like:
> (a) Signoff in principle in advance from a core committer: no guarantees, but 
> the proposal seems the right general direction. And commitment from the group 
> leading the change: we will follow through on cleanup after the patches go 
> in.
> (b) Direction and agreement to break particular pieces off.
> (c) A relaxed readiness criterion for the pieces (individual patches) as 
> they're applied. These are steps toward a goal.
> (d) Completion patches at the end to integrate the pieces.

The point is that most separated patches are nice improvements on their 
own, even if other separated patches from the original big one will not 
make it into core. A possible practice is what our i18n to core effort is 
trying to achieve. (http://drupal.org/node/77866) First one big patch to 
debate the concept and then possibly smaller patches to help reviewers and 
comitters.

Goba