[development] Missing CVS branches in contrib -- peeve

[Chris Kennedy]

Yes, there is a need for more documentation volunteers and reducing the
cvs barrier to entry for developers, even more for themers.

In this case branching isn't necessarily the issue - the maintainer can
simply edit the HEAD release node and designate it as compatible with
Drupal 4.7. It will then appear in the list of 4.7 modules on
drupal.org. Maintainers are also encouraged to designate the HEAD
release as 5.x compatible in cases where it is working fine in d5 but
they don't feel comfortable branching yet. If you make an issue for the
appropriate project explaining this they will usually do so.

Proper branching is nice and all, but the bigger problem is that there
aren't enough module maintainers, or hours devoted to module
maintenance, in general.

The version-module support matrix feature request
(http://drupal.org/node/63491) might help too.

.ck

Boris Mann wrote:
> On 1/2/07, Chris Johnson <cxjohnson at gmail.com> wrote:
>> This is a pet peeve.   Be forewarned.  :-)
>>
>> Today, for the Nth time, I again wasted time looking for a module in
>> the 4.7 branch of the contrib repository that was not there.  Why?
>> Because it was in the HEAD branch, even though it only works with 4.7
>> -- and not 5.0 or later.
>>
>> So this brings me to my pet peeve of the moment:  module maintainers
>> who do not branch their modules when appropriate.
>>
>> How can this be made easier for people
> 
> We need a good concise document explaining step by step how to version
> code. Ideally with some popular GUI client examples.
> 
>> and more reliable for folks
>> who want to download or checkout contrib code?
> 
> Create an issue requesting it.
> 
> This will be an iterative process. This is the "next step" of having
> more professional "best practices" code management. Unfortunately,
> doing the actually branching can only be done by the maintainer.
> 
>