[SciPy-dev] The future of SciPy and its development infrastructure

[Travis E. Oliphant]

jason-sage at creativetrax.com wrote:
> Perry Greenfield wrote:
>   
>> 2) While I understand the desire to increase the quality of commits to  
>> scipy by putting in a more formal process, like making sure code is  
>> reviewed, tests are present, and documentation is provided, I too,  
>> like Travis, worry that this may inhibit many useful contributions.  
>> Rather than act as a barrier, why not just have some sort of "seal of  
>> approval" for things that have gone through that process. 
>>     
>
>
> Lots of projects have -stable and -dev branches.  The -stable branch for 
> scipy could involve the "seal of approval" with review, doctests, etc.  
> The -dev branch could be the unreviewed code.  This lets Travis commit 
> to something and get his patches out there, but also clearly defines a 
> line in the sand between reviewed and unreviewed code.  I realize that 
> scipy already has something of -dev and -stable branches, based on 
> releases.  Maybe this idea boils down to: only reviewed code is allowed 
> in an official release, but there is a -dev branch with all code 
> available as well.  As code is reviewed, it is moved into the -stable 
> branch and released in the next release.
>   
This may be a good solution for us in the short term, prior to choosing 
a DVCS.

> In reality, using a DVCS, each developer's copy of the repository then 
> becomes a private -dev branch that can be pulled from.  Developers get 
> to commit and publish unreviewed changes, and someone (the release 
> manager) can pull in to -stable the changes that are reviewed.  The 
> release manager could also pull all changes from developer repositories 
> into an official -dev branch if you wanted to have a central clearing 
> house for what everyone is working on.
>   
This sounds like a good workflow that solves the concerns I have while 
still allowing a stable branch to emerge with well-documented / tested / 
reviewed code.

It seems like we could do this today --- I like it.

-Travis