Re: CVS add to HEAD first, to branch later?

[Christian Rose <menthos gnome org>]

ons 2003-07-23 klockan 12.55 skrev Danilo Segan:
> > Can you expand on that? Does this become a problem for apps like
> > Evolution or gtk, for example, where I thought we were supposed
> > to be doing the branch instead of HEAD?
>
> I'll quote the Translators' guide at 
> http://developer.gnome.org/doc/tutorials/gnome-i18n/translator.html:
> 
> (Section "How to add a new translation")
> "We note that gconf has a "gnome-2-2" branch. For various reasons it's 
> preferrable to first add the new translation to HEAD and then on the 
> branch when adding translations to modules that use a branch."
>
> All I actually know is that there are some dubious warnings CVS issues 
> when you later commit a translation into HEAD (I've experienced them 
> myself, before I was advised by Christian what to do -- not to mention 
> that I didn't read the guide throughoutly :o).

I'm not a cvs expert either but I know from experience that revision
numbers tend to get quite cryptic and there is some kind of warning if
new files are first added on a branch and added to HEAD only afterwards.
So it seems always better for cvs history purposes to first add a new
file on HEAD and after that on the branch, and that's what I tried to
explain in the translator's guide.

This is also true for modules that always do use a branch and ask
translators to always work on a specific branch. Such requests almost
always in my experience means that translators are not forbidden to
update or add new translations on HEAD, only that things are supposed to
be more stable on the branch and that it's the status on the branch that
matters. So also for such modules it's better to add new translations on
HEAD first, and only after that on the branch.

So for modules that use a branch I usually myself try to keep two cvs
copies locally: one for HEAD and one for the branch. When I create a new
translation for such a module, I create my translation for the branch
and work with the branch, but when I later am finished with it and ready
to add it, I add it to HEAD first and immediately afterwards to the
branch, so as to add it in the right order.

I only follow this strict order for cvs additions of new translations
though, regular translation updates I usually only commit to the branch,
and only commit the changes back to HEAD more sporadically, such as when
the module goes back from using a branch to using HEAD again or so, or
when regular releases of the module are made both from HEAD and the
branch at the same time.


Christian