[Laszlo-dev] A question for potential contributors

[Jim Grandy]

Hi folks,

As we start 2006, the OpenLaszlo team is looking seriously at how we  
might improve how we support external contributors. The biggest  
problem right now is that we don't have a way to allow non-Laszlo  
employees to commit changes directly into the sources -- all changes  
have to be integrated by a team member. This is frustrating for our  
most passionate and dedicated contributors, and limits the scope of  
projects that our partners can take on.

Currently we use Perforce for internal source management, and the  
Subversion database available on openlaszlo.org is a read-only copy.  
We will be moving the OpenLaszlo sources into their own repository  
soon, with read-write access from the Internet.

We are considering whether to build this new OpenLaszlo repository  
using Subversion or Perforce. We like Subversion because it is more  
familiar/acceptable to the open source community, it is open source  
itself, and because it has some nice features (like a clean model for  
disconnected clients).

However, as some of you have discovered, we have run into cases where  
our Subversion database has become corrupted. Our research suggests  
that this is not uncommon with relatively new repositories, and the  
recommended solution appears to be to throw out the repository  
(including change history) and start from scratch with a new database.

Our alternative is Perforce, which is already integrated into our  
build and backup scripts, and which has an open source license.  
However, we are concerned that some folks will not want to download  
the p4 client to their machine, and that we'll lose participants  
because of this choice.

So I guess I have two questions. First, whether anyone can set our  
minds to rest regarding subversion and corrupt databases. And second,  
if we can't reach an appropriate level of confidence with svn, how  
would you feel about using p4?

Thanks,

jim

Jim Grandy
Director of Platform Engineering
Laszlo Systems, Inc.
jimgrandy at laszlosystems.com