commit new port - transcode

[Boey Maun Suang]

Hi Chuck and David,

On 17/05/2007, at 00:14, Chuck Remes wrote:

> On May 16, 2007, at 8:59 AM, Daniel J. Luke wrote:
>
>> Is there a compelling reason to use cvs HEAD for this port?
>
> Yes. The upcoming 1.1.0 release can only be accessed from HEAD.  
> Plus, this is the best way to make sure that, as the code reaches  
> release status, it doesn't break under OSX. The other maintainer  
> and I are keeping a close eye on things to make sure OSX remains a  
> solidly supported target platform. As soon as 1.1.0 is officially  
> released, we will update the Portfile to grab a tarball.
>
> There is an older release (1.0.3) which could potentially be used,  
> but it's a dead-end for support and functionality. All new  
> development is focused on the 1.1.x releases.
>
> In the interim, HEAD is safe. The project developers have a policy  
> of not breaking the build so we are (somewhat) assured the port  
> will function properly for folks. Again, this is temporary.
>
> Is this sufficient?

My concern with tracking HEAD in a public portfile (which is, I  
believe, the primary stated reason for discouraging it) is to do with  
non-reproducibility of builds.  I imagine that it would be much  
easier to diagnose a problem if we know exactly what was in the  
source files via a tag, rather than having to try to find out when  
exactly they installed the port (particularly if it's a bug that is  
important but whose cause gets obfuscated by later changes, though I  
don't know how likely that is).

Having said that, I don't see a problem with you maintaining a HEAD- 
tracking port locally and a publicly available tag-tracking port  
whose tag is frequently updated; if people are concerned with overly  
frequent updates, we can label the latter as transcode-devel to warn  
off people who are looking for more stable codebases.  Of course,  
this course would be too much work without commit rights, but you're  
welcome to apply for that [1] (note that I have nothing to do with  
determining who gets those rights; I only got mine a few weeks ago).

May I finally say thank you for your work on developing a port for  
transcode; speaking for myself, I've seen your posts to the lists and  
am impressed by the amount of work you have both been putting into  
this.  I'd hate you to think that your work was not being  
appreciated.  (I'm not casting aspersions about Daniel, either, who  
I'm sure appreciates your efforts too; I've just learned that you  
have to be really careful about writing emails, as it is far too easy  
to give the wrong impression.  Apologies if you think I'm over- 
compensating, but I think it's worth it.)

Kind regards,


Maun Suang

[1] "Requesting Commit Rights" at http://trac.macports.org/projects/ 
macports/wiki/NewCommittersGuide

-- 
Boey Maun Suang (Boey is my surname)
Email: boeyms at macports dot org