Project proposal: fbtoolkit

[Dalibor Topic]

Jeff Dinkins wrote:

>
>>> Personally I think that the OpenJDK Community should be open to  all 
>>> kinds
>>> of interesting experiments.  That's often, after all, the best way to
>>> learn things.
>>>
>> From gcc's experience, having interesting things happen in tree,  
>> rather than outside it, like it was done with Kaffe, makes it  easier 
>> to merge them back into the main branch, if the experiements  turn 
>> out to be successful, afaict.
>>
>> cheers,
>> dalibor topic
>
>
> In GCC how do they keep track of what is experimental vs. in the main  
> branch?

Hi Jeff,

assuming your concern is in figuring out what constitutes the main 
branch, and what constitutes experimental branches in a project like 
GCC, they have an extensive list of experimental branches (active, 
inactive, etc.) at http://gcc.gnu.org/svn.html .

Some of the branches are explicitely marked as not being considered for 
merges into the main branch, for example, while others are there for 
experimental features, backends, frontends, third parties distributing & 
patching gcc, etc. There are different rules for commits to branches, 
for example for release branches, the kind of patches that can go in 
depends on the 'stage' a branch is in, etc.

That may or may not be a suitable model for dealing with experimental 
work for openjdk projects, depending on what the people want & need.

> Also, at project approval time is it worth tagging items that are pre- 
> blessed as work that will, or will most likely, go back into the main  
> tree (example: JSRs, encumbered replacements)? If so who gets to set  
> the tag or branch location?
>
> Or should all new projects be treated the same and start off in an  
> incubator branch?
>
> I know, these are really questions for the Governance board to work  
> out for the constitution. Is this alias a reasonable place for these  
> issues to come up for the IGB to take back for discussion?

I think this list is a good place for bouncing ideas around. If it needs 
to be more formal / when it needs to be formalized, we can take it to 
gb-discuss and continue the conversation there.

cheers,
dalibor topic