[Rivet] Minor problems in Rivet 1.5.0

[Ben Waugh]

Hi Andy,

On 10/05/11 13:49, Andy Buckley wrote:
> On 10/05/11 13:39, Frank Siegert wrote:
>> Hi Andy,
>>
>> On 10/05/11 14:13, Andy Buckley wrote:
>>> and I think we should then
>>> pull the singleton into the trunk, where it *will* break things.
>>
>> I would prefer if this could go on a branch as long as we know that
>> it'll break things (and won't be fixed within a day or so). There are
>> quite a few people who are using Rivet trunk (partly because we have
>> recommended this!) and might not be aware of the update freeze that they
>> should adhere to. So by principle of least surprise I'd say let's leave
>> trunk in a working state as far as we can.
>
> I was trying to find a way to ensure that "developers" other than myself
> would have to confront this issue. My suspicion is that if it sits on a
> branch then only I will check it out, and all that will happen is that
> the truck changes get periodically merged onto the branch! Any
> suggestions? Yes, I know it's a problem in "my bit", and no, I don't
> really know how to fix it ;)

I don't know how to fix it, or even exactly what you are fixing, but a 
general approach that *might* help is so-called "branch by abstraction" 
(as opposed to "branch by source control"). Basically you have both 
implementations in the trunk, with some additional layer of abstraction 
above them. Then you can switch implementations easily, but other users 
can continue with the existing working one. It doesn't force other 
developers to confront anything of course, but it does keep the trunk in 
a usable (and releasable) state and means other developers at least 
*have* the new version without having to check out a separate branch.

For a better but longer description, see 
http://continuousdelivery.com/2011/05/make-large-scale-changes-incrementally-with-branch-by-abstraction/

The devil is in the details, and this may not be helpful at all, but I 
thought I'd mention it.

Cheers,
Ben

>
> Andy
>

-- 
Dr Ben Waugh                                   Tel. +44 (0)20 7679 7223
Dept of Physics and Astronomy                  Internal: 37223
University College London
London WC1E 6BT