[Openmcl-devel] OpenMCL, CVS, and Subversion

[Gary Byers]

I converted the OpenMCL CVS repository (at least the bleeding-edge tree)
over to Subversion (<http://subversion.tigris.org>) a few weeks ago.
The CVS tree gets kept in synch with the SVN repository via a cron
job; this works as long as the cron job is basically the only thing
committing to CVS.  (One implication of this is that you don't need
to switch from CVS to SVN to keep sources in synch.)

You can access the Subversion repository for the bleeding-edge tree
via the URL <http://svn.clozure.com/publicsvn/openmcl/trunk/ccl>.
(One of the nice things about Subversion is that it can use http as a
network protocol, so you can do primitive browsing of the sources via
an arbitrary web browser.)  You can also (more productively) use that
URL with a command-line or GUI SVN client, and if your OS and/or
desktop interface provide WebDAV filesystem support, you can mount the
repository as a remote filesystem.  (In the OSX Finder, this can be
done via the "Connect to Server ..."/(command-K) menu item in the 
"Go" menu, or the localized equivalent thereof.)

The Trac (bug-tracking/wiki) page at <http://trac.clozure.com/openmcl>
also contains a source browser which allows poking around in the
subversion repository (and viewing diffs, etc.)  The Trac site's
"Timeline" feature shows commit history and other activity (the
Trac site needs more bug reports, obviously.)

One of the advantages that SVN offers over CVS - for me, at least - is
that it's a bit easier/less confusing to create and use experimental
branches.  As the Trac timeline shows, much of the activity over
the last few weeks has been on a branch (and the SVN "trunk" - which
is mirrored in CVS - hasn't gotten into a hard-to-bootstrap state as
a result.)

If you want SVN write access, please let me know.  (If you've
had CVS write access, please don't use it: the only thing that
should commit to the bleeding-edge CVS tree is the batch job that
propagates SVN commits to CVS.)

Again, if you don't want to think about/deal with SVN and just want
to continue to use CVS periodically to keep in synch, you should be
able to do so.