On 2011-07-15, Robert Burrell Donkin wrote: > On 07/15/11 08:44, Stefan Bodewig wrote:
>> I don't really see how Maven or Ant would fit if the only integration to >> their flagships is by spawning a new process (or maybe run the scripts >> in VM using Jython, I don't know). >> To me it sounds as if you are looking for a home for "a bunch of scripts >> we use around the release process". Something we don't really have, so >> a new TLP seems more appropriate - if we have and keep the momentum. >> This new TLP would likely be more focussed on users that are expected to >> use trunk versions of the scripts than to have releases - no realy end >> users at all, this is quite similar to Gump. > Yes, quite similar to Gump to some ways but let me explain my thinking a > little more... Oh, I just mentioned Gump to show that the ASF already has TLPs whose main focus is not to deliver products. Although I must admit I always feel strange when I report "no releases" to the board. I didn't mean to imply Gump could be a target candidate for RAT, didn't even think about that before. > Some use cases (I think distinct) [1] > [Release Review] > * Comprehension - discovering and understanding what's there > * Audit - account for contents > [Build accounting for exceptions to general rules] > * Verification - check that new exceptions are intentional > * Documentation - describe exceptions > To take a recent example (from over in James-land) <snip/> > Reviewers of releases are under time pressure and care only about a > special case. For build time verification tools, releases are essential > and regression is high impact. Adding overly specific rules to > verification tools causes maintenance problems. > It's become clear to me that trying to resolve these competing needs > within a single code base is difficult. IMHO the right way forward is to > flow new rules down: comprehension -> audit -> verification -> > documentation (-> generation), and that's why I'm very keen on building > a single, language agnostic community. I think I understand that and I don't think the existing Ant, Maven or Commons communities would fit in here. In particular, neither of those communities really is language agnostic and using Python for your code might even alienate some[1] ;-) Since I don't see any existing community that would match a new TLP might be the best choice. Stefan [1] Personally I've become used to Python enough to be able to make productive changes to Gump but I can't say I enjoy it more than I'd enjoy coding in Perl or bash. If it was for my personal fun I'd likely go for Prolog for the cases you describe.
