Re: Re: RFC:PHP Release Cycle

At 00:55 10/11/2000, Zak Greant wrote:

I have little experience with merging CVS branches - however, any time that you have a system combining information solely based on differences in the data, there is a decent possibility for the information to get mangled in the process. While there is still ample possibility for errors to occur when the developers have to commit to two branches instead of one - I believe that these types of error are much easier to track (by reviewing commit logs) and correct.

That's actually not quite right, in my opinion. Note that we rely solely on CVS's merge capabilities on a daily basis, in routine use. Merging branches is not any different from updating a modified file and merging its patches.

Errors induced by automated processes are likely to be harder to detect and correct (who wants to roll back x versions and manually combine two trees.) Just my 0.02 cents. I am very glad that you are discussing some method to make the RC code stable for the testers! :)

Generally, humans are less reliable than automated processes. However, that does have an implication here as well - I, for one, am not used to use branches, so I'm likely to make mistakes when using it. I believe that the sort of bad stuff Rasmus has been seeing was mostly due to that. I say we cross the bridge when we get to it... Zeev -- Zeev Suraski <zeev@zend.com> http://www.zend.com/