[development] FAQ: Why is Drupal still using CVS when X is a much better choice?

[Sam Boyer]

On Fri, 2008-08-01 at 11:18 -0700, Derek Wright wrote:
> On Aug 1, 2008, at 6:26 AM, Adrian Simmons wrote:
> 
> > Can we have a commitment that *if* everything needing to be done  
> > that Angie kindly listed on http://drupal.org/node/289117 and links  
> > therefrom *gets done* we *will* move?
> 
> Once upon a time, in a post someone with time and motivation could  
> surely find, Dries wrote something to the effect of:
> 
> "I'd be happy to switch to something other than CVS _if all the  
> dependencies on CVS are safely removed and addressed_".
> 
> (approximate quote from memory).
> 
> - The #1 dependency on CVS is project_release.module.
> - The #2 dependency on CVS is all the CVS account creation stuff.
> - The #3 dependency on CVS are the CVS commit log viewing pages,  
> links on project nodes, etc.
> - The best way to fix all of that is VersionControl API.
> - There are pages dedicated to what needs to happen to get us closer,  
> already linked from Angie's wonderful document.
> 
> If all that work is done, d.o is running VersionControl API with the  
> CVS backend, the SVN backend is demonstrated to be stable and working  
> on project.drupal.org, we've got the packaging script ported and  
> working, we've got the CVS -> SVN import documented and working,  
> we've got all the SVN access control worked out (per project like we  
> have now, preventing commits to tags, etc, etc), we've got something  
> like svn.drupal.org setup care of the OSUOSL, and we've got a team of  
> documentation folks lined up to go nuts, I can pretty safely  
> guarantee that Dries will say "Yay, go for it!".
> 
> That still doesn't answer the question of how the choice of SVN vs.  
> XXX will ultimately be decided, nor if decree from Dries is good  
> enough for the switch.  The lack of a clear process for making  
> decisions like this continues to haunt us.  By default, a decree from  
> Dries (if he's willing to make it) carries the day.  If not, I guess  
> decree from Dries on how to decide will be necessary.
> 
> Meanwhile, it can't possibly hurt to at least move towards project* +  
> versioncontrol_cvs as a first (monster) step down this path.  The  
> other stuff will be pretty easy (relatively speaking) once that's  
> done.  Hurray to Sam for volunteering to help.  But I can assure you  
> that more resources will be needed to finish the job.

Indeed there will. Help is VERY welcome :)

s

> 
> Cheers,
> -Derek (dww)
> 
> 
>