Re: (FC-Devel) Further OCD comments regarding CVS

[Andrey V Khavryutchenko <akhavr@compchem.kiev.ua>]

Hi, Chris!

>>>>> "CMM" == Chris M. Moore  writes:

CMM> Hi peeps, Yes its me again.  I've had some thoughts on what the OCD
CMM> implies to usage of CVS and the CORBA UML interfaces.  It seems to me
CMM> that the OCD documents repository _is_ a CVS repository and that the
CMM> CORBA UML interfaces are what the tools see on the client side.  (One of
CMM> the tools would be a GUI to manipulate the client side sandbox copy).
CMM> Is this what you intended Andrey?

Yes, this is the implementation, I've thought about while writing the
document.  It's implied but by no way it is required by OCD as is.

CMM> If this is the case then I would like to suggest that the CVS repository
CMM> is optional.  There will definitely be a need for an administrator if
CMM> CVS is used (merging problems, passwords etc) and this extra
CMM> overhead/complexity may be off-putting for small projects (or even large
CMM> projects at startup when there is considerable creation of new objects
CMM> eg. two developers independantly create the objects with the same name).

CMM> This would leave the OCD documents client talking to multiple UIs (the
CMM> client becomes the server!).  The UIs would/should operate in whiteboard
CMM> mode ie. if another user creates an object, it appears on your screen.
CMM> The client would save its contents in some human readable text format so
CMM> that CVS can be used for version control if required.

CMM> Hows this sound to you?

Uhh....   This is exactly what I've listed in <q/Alternatives and
trade-offs considered/:

              Every developer or group of developers keeps their own
              copy of repository.
              <lb>
              <emph>Reason to decline:</emph> Difficult and error
              prone synchronization between repositories.

Imagine the following.  We've produced the first snap of FreeCASE
implementing your idea.  Now, I'm working at home in Kiev, Ukraine.  You're 
working in <traceroute check> yes, UK.  I can't afford being 100% time
online (got only 1 phone line).  We're making _different_ changes in the
same model.  Now, the questions:
  1. Whose model is right?
  2. When and how you'll get mine changes?
  3. When and how I'll get your changes?
  4. How they should be merged?

Besides, maintaining small CVS repo is not that difficult.  It took me
about 30 minutes to skim trough the manual to initialize it and make first
experiments (and that was *too* much).  Additionally, I haven't seen any
merge problems during 2.5-year cvs usage.

-- 
SY, Andrey V Khavryutchenko	http://www.kbi.kiev.ua/~akhavr

Shick's Law:
	There is no problem a good miracle can't solve.