FreeTDS Development Group

[Steve Langasek <vorlon AT netexpress.net>]

On Thu, Nov 08, 2001 at 11:47:36PM -0500, Mark J. Lilback wrote:
> At 1:48 PM +1100 11/9/2001, James Cameron wrote:
> >Peter Harvey wrote:
> >> NOTE: All of the files generated by Makefile.cvs should probably NOT be
> >> in cvs.

> >Yes, I've mentioned that.  Most other projects avoid putting any such
> >files into CVS, thus requiring people who use CVS to download the
> >package to have a current set of tools.

> I really prefer them being there, especially if the tools are going 
> to be updated on a regular basis. First,, because using those tools 
> is a barrier to entry for people -- I have no understanding of them 
> or what they do, and I'd rather spend time coding than figuring out 
> how to use them.

Hmm, this is the advantage of using an autogen.sh script.  You don't
have to understand how any of these tools work unless you actually plan
to do development on those pieces of the code -- otherwise, you just
need to have them installed on your system.

> Second, as Brian pointed out, updating tools isn't the easiest thing 
> on all systems. I installed SSH when Mac OS 10.0 came out, and then 
> Apple added it in a different location with the 10.0.3 update. I 
> ended up having all kinds of nightmares because of this.

> If the tools didn't have version dependencies, no big deal. But from 
> what's been described, having to synch all versions could be a real 
> headache.

Looking at the freetds autostuff, I don't think there's anything in
there that would require versioned dependencies on any of the autotools;
at this stage, everything is pretty straightforward and traditional.  In
fact, removing generated files from the CVS repository leaves developers
more free to work on the code /without/ worrying about autotool
versions:  currently, one of the big disadvantages of having these files
in CVS is that small changes to the source, or minor differences in the
autotools versions being used by different developers, results in large
diffs against CVS.

The other disadvantage is that developers don't have perfect development
practices, and from time to time someone /will/ forget to rerun
automake, or autoconf, or libtoolize, or something, before committing.
So it's a win for everyone who uses the CVS code if one never has to
worry about outdated files lying around in the repository.

Steve Langasek
postmodern programmer

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