CVS and Bug tracking

[NathanKell]

Let me get this out of the way: I know next to nothing about either.

But I think we need them.

At the rate things are going on around here (and don't get me wrong, that's a _real_ good thing), we need some _centralized_ way to keep track of bugs and their fixes, and to merge that into one codebase.

For the short term we could maybe use a piece of the wiki for bugtracking, but I'm sure there are better approaches.

And I'm hoping that somebody or other will know more. <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

 

[dchaley]

CVS = Concurrent Versioning System, or something like that. It's a marvelous way of having a bunch of people all working on the same project.

It has oodles of features, but the ones we're most interested in are the file editing control.

Briefly, here's how you use it:
1) You 'check out' the code from the server. This is a fancy way of saying 'you download it'.
2) You edit it.
3) You 'commit' your changes to the server.

The fun part is #3. What's so great about CVS is that it looks at what you actually *changed*, and puts your *changes* to the server.

This way, two people can actually work on the *same* file, and change different parts of it, and when you commit everything works out!

In other words CVS is a `life-saver` when it comes to mostly stable codebases (and the Build has a stable core) with lots of people making small changes here and there.

The downside is that you need a server to host it on. I've got one of those, but if you already have one that's better since I don't want to look like I'm taking over or anything.


As for bug tracking, there are a few ways to do it that I've run across.
1) Have a specialized forum for bugs, and make sure that you have one thread = one bug. This requires some discipline on the part of the bug reporters. Then, you just close a thread when you've fixed the bug. This is the "poor man's solution", since you don't need to install anything.
2) Use a package for bug tracking, such as Bugzilla.

In this case I'd recommend #1 since the project isn't terribly large (when compared to a web browser project like Mozilla). If need be you switch to Bugzilla later on, but I'd imagine that a simple forum solution should work. It's what I did on my other projects, where the players report bugs. It works very well, even if it lacks the bells and whistles of a 'real' bug tracker. <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/pirate2.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":" border="0" alt="pirate2.gif" />

 

[CatalinaThePirate]

Re: CVS - This sounds GREAT! That would solve a lot of the writing/overwriting problems we encounter.

Ditto the bugtracker threads idea. We could handle bugs better, that way. MUCH better. <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/onya.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="onya.gif" />

 

[Kieron]

wooooow cvs sounds like just what we need... *rubs hands together*

 

[NathanKell]

Sign me up for the `hands-rubbing`-`with-glee` bit as well. That would indeed make life much simpler, and let us all get on more with the, um, _real_ work if you will, rather than mergework.

And, I don't think _anyone_ would think you're trying to take over, dchaley. We're pirates, after all--there's no one to take over from. <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/diomed.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":dio" border="0" alt="diomed.gif" /> (Snip `left-anarchism` treatise).
And if you're willing, I'd certainly love to see you do it. <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

 

[dchaley]

Alright then, I'll see what I can do about setting this up. <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="smile.gif" /> I'll make a public, anonymous user to let people download the source, but I'll have to privately release developer passwords. I don't know who's "in charge" of the build at the moment, but whoever is should give me a list of people to contact with passwords.

Oh, and you'll also need to get a CVS client. I suggest <a href="http://www.tortoisecvs.org/" target="_blank">http://www.tortoisecvs.org/</a> because it is so easy to use and ties into Explorer. If that doesn't float your boat though, there are plenty others such as WinCVS, for starters. Personally however I don't like the others and find them clunky - you might as well use good old fashioned `command-line` CVS in those cases. <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/pirate2.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":" border="0" alt="pirate2.gif" /> I strongly recommend TortoiseCVS if you've never used CVS before.

 

[CatalinaThePirate]

Nobody has really been "in charge" of this new build, it just sorta spontaneously happened... I've been trying to help, so has Kieron, and others, in the absence of NK... Nathan, I don't know how you managed this project before, I landed here after 10.1, and 11.0 was handled by the PMT... So... <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/unsure.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":?" border="0" alt="unsure.gif" /> Perhaps someone with experience should manage this?