[documentation] A would-be developer requests "CVS for Dummies"

[Laura Scott]

I try to be as much a part of the Drupal community as I can. I've been 
contributing php snippets, offering support comments in the forums and 
filing issues whenever I discover them. I've commented on handbook pages 
to clarify things or answer questions when I could.

Now I'd really like to get my CVS account working so that I can actually 
contribute themes. However, CVS completely mystifies me.

*My story:* Before my iMac crashed, I managed to follow the handbook 
instructions for CVL and log in and download about 10% of the CVS 
projects before it all just stopped. (I got projects from A-C.) I had no 
idea what went wrong. And while I could point my BBEdit to the local CVS 
folder I had set up, I had no idea how it all integrated.

Now, with the iMac in the shop getting a brain transplant, I'm on my 
powerbook, starting over. I have OSX Tiger. I have CVL installed. I'm 
not sure about the developer tools requirements, but I can figure that out.

*Back to the point:* But what I need -- and what I am asking for here 
with great humility and earnestness -- is a good, basic overview of what 
the hell CVS is and how it works. I don't want just nuts-and-bolts, 
though that would help. But what I need is the big picture -- a flow 
chart, an introduction to the concepts that makes it all fit together.

/*Aside:* I never understood geometry until I took calculus, where my 
professor took us through the circle diagrams of what sine, cosine and 
tangent were about. Suddenly all the "rules of thumb" added up and it 
made sense. This is the kind of big picture I'm asking for here./

*The request:* If someone who feels up to the task could devote an hour 
or two to composing a good, basic overview of CVS and its concepts, I 
believe not only would I benefit, but many many people who have been 
blocked by the CVS requirement, and thus are not contributing as much as 
they might, could benefit as well.

And thus the Drupal development community would benefit.

Not all of us took computer programming when CVS existed. (For me, I 
took computer programming when printers smaller than washing machines 
were dot-matrix, when it was when it was a radical act to write a paper 
on computer -- the university mainframe where you had to code all your 
page formatting in-line like hand-coding html today. I won't volunteer a 
year, thank you.) Just a good clear picture that could help the grokking 
of how CVS works would be immensely helpful to me and, I suspect, many 
others.

A humble suggestion/request from Laura. Thank you.

-- 
Laura Scott
laura at pingv.com
pingVision <http://pingv.com>
rare pattern <http://rarepattern.com>
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