My version of the idea is not to let random strangers manipulate the
branch that will be released with our brand, but rather to have a
version control system that allows random strangers to commit proposed
changes with just normal version control commands, without the mental
overhead of going outside this system to create a patch, find the right
place in bugzilla, create a bug report and submit, attach the patch as a
second step, find out the patch was formatted wrong, resubmit, etc.
This version is a matter of ease of interaction, not of releasing control of a branded release branch and accompanying quality control. My personal favorite system for this is the up-and-coming Monotone vc system, but it is still in its apha stage.
You're probably aware of darcs (http://abridgegame.org/darcs/) if you've been looking into this - it makes it very straight-forward for external parties to submit patches because the commit command sends the patch off via email to the maintainer. The down side is it doesn't provide a central repository (though it can be kind of achieved I believe).
The fact that darcs is largely unknown and can be difficult to install makes it a non-starter for making things simpler for contributors though.
--Tim Larson
Regards,
Adrian Sutton. ---------------------------------------------- Intencha "tomorrow's technology today" Ph: 3420 4584 0422236329 35 Prenzler St Upper Mount Gravatt 4122 Australia QLD www.intencha.com
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