Re: "up to date at all costs" is a failed approach

["J. Lewis Muir" <jlmuir%imca-cat.org@localhost>]

On 07/15, Jonathan Perkin wrote:
> In this world a package or update would never enter the tree until it has
> been verified to build correctly on all supported platforms.  The emphasis
> is on correctness and true stability, rather than the latest version at all
> cost.
> 
> It's a very very different development model to the one that folks in this
> community are used to, and I expect most people on this list will disagree
> with it.  That's fine.  However, if anyone is interested and would like to
> work on it with me, I'd be happy to talk, as like nia I've been burned out
> for a long time trying to keep up with pkgsrc breakage.

Late to the party, but sounds like something I'd really like!

How would it affect new packages or package bug fixes on such a
Sun/illumos-development-model branch?  My use case is typically the
following: I'd like to follow a stable branch because I don't want to
deal with software changing/breaking all the time.  I either (1) go to
install a new package and find that it's not available in the stable
branch, or (2) install a package but find that it crashes or doesn't
work.  Then I want to add the new package or fix the existing package.
I'd wish to not have to try or fix the same package in the current
branch because that means doing the same work twice (i.e., maintaining
a stable branch and current branch source tree and changing, building,
etc. in both, which means doing all the work twice).  I really wish I
could eliminate this double work situation.  I also get the feeling from
the pkgsrc developers that work on a stable branch is less desirable
and that new packages and fixes need to be done on the current branch.
I know that what you describe is based on whether packages build
successfully, and I think that's very good, but then my usage experience
usually comes up, which isn't covered by that, and I'm wondering how
that would work with the Sun/illumos-development model.

Thanks!

Lewis