[documentation] Problem With One of the Main CVS Pages

[Shari]

I thought I would add what someone who doesn't know anything about HEAD 
or CVS thought when going to the page...

Reading what is there, I would have assumed it was talking about the 
latest unstable release of version 6. Because I didn't know for sure 
what HEAD referred to I moved backward, along the breadcrumb, to "Drupal 
and CVS", I still wasn't sure if HEAD was referring to 6 or 7. So I 
clicked on CVS FAQ it isn't answered there but there is a note: "- 
What's "HEAD"? What should I use it for?" as something that needs to be 
answered. So then I went back, and clicked on "Drupal CVS branches and 
tags" to see if it was explained there. I found "The HEAD branch is 
special and is used to refer to the latest development version.," still 
doesn't answer if it's 6.7 or 7.x. There was a link for a more detailed 
explanation, which I clicked on and got this:

"In /Drupal core/, HEAD is the name given to the version of Drupal core 
being worked on by developers right now. Of course, now that core is 
only using two digits for the version number (starting with the 5.0 
release), there's no longer any ambiguity about what the next version of 
core will be called, so the use of "HEAD" to identify a release is no 
longer necessary. For example, now that the official 6.0 release of 
Drupal core is out, everyone knows that the next version of core under 
development will eventually become the 7.x release series, so the 
nightly snapshot releases are more properly called "7.x-dev", not "HEAD"."

The 1st part seems to be saying that it would be the next 2 digit core 
version which would mean it would be 6.7, but then it says it's 7.x-dev, 
so I'm still not sure what HEAD refers to. Is it 6.7 or 7.x?

Also the title, actually doesn't mean anything to me either. Checking 
out from the main repository, wouldn't be something I would have any 
idea of meaning, and would most likely ignore it. I would suggest 
Getting files from the main repository, Downloading from..., Access the ...

I thought I would share my entire process, so you can see why some of 
this does indeed need to be made clearer if the intention is for anyone 
visiting and wanting to learn, to be able to understand. I know, I don't 
know or understand some of the lingo, and am willing to move back, or 
attempt to find the information, however as in this case even trying to 
find the information left me still not understanding, and if I have to 
work harder then this, it's likely to be something I just let go.

Now that I just typed all that, I reread the original post, and noticed 
that Shai had placed stable release in italics, this leads me to believe 
that 7 is what you get when you dl HEAD. If HEAD is indeed 7, I would 
suggest something like this to explain it: Once a version has been 
released e.g. 6.0, all further version release under the number 6, are 
considered "Stable" releases and not "Development" releases. The HEAD or 
development release would be the next /full /number e.g. 7.x

Shari

Shai Gluskin wrote the following, On 11/19/2008 4:59 PM:
> Hi gang,
>
> This is about http://drupal.org/node/320
>
> The title of the page is: /Checking out from the main repository
>
> /The assumption on that page is that you want to check out HEAD. There 
> is one small section which says, "If you want to check out a specific 
> version of Drupal..."
>
> I believe the assumption of the page should be opposite, that you want 
> to check out a specific version of Drupal. That is how you can check 
> out the latest stable release.
>
> The use-case for checking out HEAD is for core committers or folks 
> testing patches to core. That is very important. However, I think the 
> vast majority of people wanting to get their feet wet in CVS (and 
> therefore coming to this handbook page) want to check out the latest 
> /stable release/ in order to make it easier to upgrade the next time 
> an updated stable release is deployed.
>
> I'd like to edit the page so that the primary instructions are for 
> checking out a specific version and the secondary instructions are for 
> folks wanting to checkout HEAD.
>
> I thought this was a big enough change that I wanted to run it by others.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Shai
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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