On 31/08/2007, Simetrical <Simetrical+wikilist(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Perhaps it would be better to branch earlier so things
don't get
reverted solely for the reason of being shortly before release.
People could commit non-major changes to both branch and trunk, and
relatively major/untested things to trunk only (or, if they're lazy,
everything to trunk only). Usually we only have a branch up for a few
days, but revert things on the basis of being before a release for a
couple of weeks beforehand at least, and in the last one or two cases
for over a month beforehand.
This would certainly be something to consider, given that I don't
anticipate the overall workload for those involved reducing in future
around Wikimania time, and given that Wikimania is likely to always be
held at times which coincide with a release.
I'd discourage actually allowing people without sufficient experience
(and personally, I wouldn't, full stop) from merging to the release
branch without the direct permission of the release manager, simply
because silly little things do slip through, and break stuff.
But of course, our release manager has way too much to
do already.
I dare say it's no hardship to create a branch in advance, especially
if it cuts down or eases the later workload.
Rob Church