[development] Slow down with the official releases of contrib already, ok? ; )

[Derek Wright]

On May 30, 2008, at 8:23 AM, Larry Garfield wrote:

> Crazy idea that may already be possible, I've not tried:

...
> What if we allowed non-pattern-compliant branches, but did not  
> permit the creation of release nodes?

Not possible, precisely because enforcing a standard convention for  
branch and tag names has been one of the key parts of trying to keep  
(some of) the insanity in check.  It seems the regular practice for  
new contributors is:

A) This stuff is new and complicated, I don't get it.
B) Lemme try making a bunch of branches and tags, and see what happens.
C) Lemme try making release nodes.
D) At first sign of trouble, email dww or file support issues.

(Notice: "Read the docs" isn't on the list).

So, at step (B), if there's any flexibility at all, they'll do all  
kinds of crazy things (which are hard to clean up after the fact).   
Then, at step (C), they'll get even more agitated: [critical bug] "I  
made my tags but I can't make releases".


Really, how much more flexibility do you need?

You're at 5.x-2.*, which is stable.  You're starting new features and  
trying stuff out.  Make a DRUPAL-5--3 branch, but don't make a  
release node for it.  There you have it -- a branch you can play  
with, try out crazy things, but then people won't be trying to use  
it, -dev or otherwise.


One thing I'd _consider_ (but not necessarily implement) is some kind  
of "use advanced CVS" permission care of the drupalorg.module, and  
have our validation scripts (and perhaps form_alter() on the release- 
related forms) honor this perm to give more flexibility.  But, then,  
it's a headache to maintain a new role that has this permission, it's  
work to write this code, it's two sets of reality to document and  
maintain, etc, etc.  And, just because you claim you know what you're  
doing and you need additional flexibility doesn't make it so. ;)

Cheers,
-Derek (dww)