On Tue, Jun 5, 2012 at 1:50 AM, Ori Livneh <ori.livneh(a)gmail.com> wrote:
If it isn't easy, let's make it easy. I'm
a new developer and not having a
repository to develop in has been absolutely paralyzing. (I requested one
on May 23, for what it's worth).
Gerrit is not just an SCM: there is a rapidly growing ecosystem of services
that integrate with it -- and if your code isn't there, you're persona non
grata. I've whipped up two iterations of a data collection backend for my
team and got it set up on a labs instance, but that was a week ago, and
since then things are at a standstill. It's been hard to get anyone to look
at it, because everyone's workflow and attentional habits are interwoven
with Gerrit now.
This particular side-project is a useful illustration of another important
point: Git's usefulness isn't limited to managing mature projects like
Mediawiki -- it has a crucial role to play in the earliest stages of
development, too. I have no idea if what I wrote is usable and scalable,
and it would've been good to get some feedback early. In the past, I have
found it useful and productive to whip up quick prototypes and put them up
on GitHub for feedback, instead of trading in inchoate ideas, or sitting on
them until the ideas feel mature (which *never* happens for me until I sit
down and start writing code). The ideas that stick get developed into
full-fledged products. Using Git in this way has been such a tremendous
boon for me as a developer, and not having that has been really frustrating.
I don't think expanding git-creation rights to a few more individuals goes
far enough, because the point at which you need a repository is antecedent
to the point in time at which you feel comfortable describing your work to
someone. For cool projects to happen, people need to feel empowered to
start repos for projects that seem speculative and maybe even a little
silly, and that won't happen when you make it necessary to ask for
permission.
At this point I expect someone to come along and point out that you don't
need Gerrit to start a Git repository -- "git init" will suffice. And
that's true, as long as you don't need to collaborate with anyone, or
develop on more than one machine (say rsync & I'll bop you on the head!),
or have stable urls to share with people.
I mostly agree with what you've said.
Just wanted to point out gerrit projects (aka repos) can never be
destroyed. so if you e.g. typo or rename a project or kill it 5 days
after you started it's still there forever. Only very recently have we
even been able to hide projects from project listings in the UI.
-Jeremy