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Please publish bleeding-edge code to Vim's Mercurial repository #188

Closed GoogleCodeExporter closed 9 years ago

GoogleCodeExporter commented 9 years ago 
With most open-source projects, bleeding-edge code is always available in the 
source repository.  But with Vim, this is not true.  Please see 
http://code.google.com/p/vim/issues/detail?id=93#c3 for a theory about why this 
is so.

Dear Bram:  Please start publishing bleeding-edge code to Mercurial.  This will 
provide various advantages:  for one thing, it will allow daring individuals to 
test the code very early on.

Thank you!

Original issue reported on code.google.com by jasonspiro4@gmail.com on 29 Dec 2013 at 11:08

GoogleCodeExporter commented 9 years ago 
What is this "bleeding edge" version of Vim that you think exists? Unlike other 
open source projects, Vim does not have separate stable and development 
branches. There is only one branch and it is the one in the Mercurial 
repository. When a feature or a bug-fix is complete to Bram's satisfaction, it 
is checked in to Mercurial. You are then free to pull it.

Original comment by gary....@gmail.com on 30 Dec 2013 at 12:02

GoogleCodeExporter commented 9 years ago 
I would like Bram to check in new features even _before_ they are completed to 
his satisfaction.

Original comment by jasonspiro4@gmail.com on 30 Dec 2013 at 12:13

GoogleCodeExporter commented 9 years ago 
That would be irresponsible and would waste people's time.

Such code would presumably contain bugs. Those bugs would discourage users from 
using that branch in their daily work. If it was an easily-encountered bug, 
several users would discover it and spend time investigating it, documenting it 
and reporting it. Bram would have to read and investigate each report. The bugs 
reported might well be bugs of which Bram is already aware and would have fixed 
but for the pressure to release early. There is a lot of work involved in 
managing bug reports. By releasing code too early, Bram's productivity would 
decrease as would the rate of improvement of Vim.

Bram doesn't wait until the code is "perfect" before releasing it, but he is a 
careful developer and project manager and so far his judgement has been pretty 
good.

All software contains bugs, but knowingly releasing software before it is ready 
is a bad idea.

Original comment by gary....@gmail.com on 30 Dec 2013 at 2:21

GoogleCodeExporter commented 9 years ago 
Fair rebuttal.  Thank you.

Feel free to close this ticket.

Original comment by jasonspiro4@gmail.com on 30 Dec 2013 at 5:07

GoogleCodeExporter commented 9 years ago

Original comment by chrisbr...@googlemail.com on 3 Oct 2014 at 11:50