Gerrit P. Haase wrote:
Frank Heckenbach wrote:
Gerrit P. Haase wrote:
IMHO you would get more testers (users) automatically if GPC would be included into the GCC repository. And it would be much easier to contribtueif the code could be checked out via CVS and so there would be also a better chance to recruit more developers .
I've heard this claim, but I see no evidence. Getting the source
Have you tried it? Source managed by CVS is 'standard' and most OS developers are used to use it.
(I've heard of some rather popular OS having switched to a different system. Just a side-note ...)
And yes, I think I mentioned it before, we've tried it once. It didn't attract new contributors (nobody asked us for write access, or sent patches based on a CVS snapshot), and it was just more work for Peter and me.
code by HTTP is no more complicated than by CVS (in fact, it's much easier for most of us, myself included, even if it may take a second longer because a few more files are included).
May be easier for people who are not familiar with CVS,
Including myself.
but simply retrieving is not the problem.
Well, for me it still is a problem. I always have to look things up if I need to get something from CVS, and I still haven't really understood all those strange options. I seem to know that there are different access methods, and they all need their own special options, and there are more parameters than would actually be necessary for an anonymous checkout.
OTOH, I know very well (as probably most people do) how to get a file by HTTP.
To make it clear what I mean, this is the relevant part that was in the GPC manual when we had a CVS. I'm not sure if it has to be so complicated. For other CVS packages, I usually see different (but not much easier) instructions ...
---8<---
... via anonymous CVS from:
@smallexample CVS root: :pserver:anonymous@@agnes.dida.physik.uni-essen.de:/usr/local/cvsroot Password: anonymous Command: checkout gpc @end smallexample
If you haven't used CVS yet, here's what to do:
Make sure you have the @file{cvs} executable. If not, you can get its source from a GNU mirror or binaries for various platforms (Linux @file{.rpm} or @file{.deb}, CygWin archives, etc.) from the usual places.
Execute once the following command:
@smallexample @t{cvs -d } @t{ :pserver:anonymous@@agnes.dida.physik.uni-essen.de:/usr/local/cvsroot login} @end smallexample
Create a directory where you want to store the GPC sources.
Each time you want to get/update your copy of GPC, change to that directory and execute the following command. The first time, it will take a while to get all the GPC sources. Subsequent invocations will only transmit changes and therefore usually be quite fast.
@smallexample @t{cvs -z9 -d } @t{ :pserver:anonymous@@agnes.dida.physik.uni-essen.de:/usr/local/cvsroot } @t{ checkout gpc} @end smallexample
(You may want to store this last command in a script or as an alias so you can invoke it more easily.)
---8<---
Additionally you could use the facilities at sourceware.org to distribute snapshots, releases and the website & mailinglist.
We do have the facilities, and we do all that, thanks. (Unless the server goes down ... but this can happen to anyone, see Debian last year ...)
Getting patches to a slightly older (alpha/beta) version is *really not* a big deal. I can handle some changed contexts, renamed identifiers etc.
Not a big deal for you. But a big deal for me. I need to ask *you* because I cannot ask CVS.
So why would you want to get an instable version from me? When things are stable enough, I make a release anyway.
Frank