Welcome, Bruce! The code should check out and build (for some
definition of "build" anyway); good luck with it.
-K
Bruce Atherton <bruce@hagbard.flair.law.ubc.ca> writes:
> My first introduction to the CVS community was just after I had introduced
> it into my workplace. I had used several other Versioning tools and wanted
> to add a feature I really liked from them, using a GUI to browse the
> repository before doing a checkout. What was missing was a "LIST" command
> in the protocol, and perhaps a reliable way to indicate the top level
> directory ("." apparently didn't always work). So I started looking at the
> source code and was instantly terrified! That code is a mess.
>
> I decided to set my sights on a simpler task, to add a URI naming scheme
> for CVS. I thought it would be great to modify programs to work with CVS as
> a versioning file system. So, you might tell your Java compiler to compile
> cvs:bruce@my.machine.org/my/repos//this/file?tagname. Changing the compiler
> would be a big job, but adding the scheme itself to CVS was simple. I
> submitted the patch but it was never accepted.
>
> About that time, Cyclic software was sold and Karl Fogel started the CVS
> Continuity Project to decide what should be done. Eventually Eric Sink, the
> new owner, opted to continue maintaining it. The CCP was dropped, but not
> before (partly due to my obnoxiousness) people agreed that the ability to
> check in should be opened up.
>
> Encouraged, I rewrote the hashing code to be much more efficient and object
> oriented in the same way as is happening here, using namespace prefixes and
> virtual functions through function pointers. That patch too was never
> accepted, though I could understand why it filled people with trepidation,
> since the hash touched most parts of CVS.
>
> I also started a discussion on the CVS list about what people would like to
> see in a new version of CVS. It generated a lot of discussion and I am glad
> to see many of the ideas reflected here.
>
> I decided to give code changes one last try. I wrote a patch that did
> nothing more than add comments to the hideously convoluted main.c file.
> That patch was not accepted either. At 0 for 3, I decided to give up.
>
> Then I improperly configured my mailing software for a few days, and it
> bounced email. This got me kicked off the CVS list as well as the DeltaV
> list. Because I was preparing to undergo Chemotherapy for my Leukemia, it
> seemed like a good time to bow out of the CVS community anyway.
>
> Since then, I've had a Bone Marrow Transplant. If you know anyone who is
> looking at going through one, BTW, you may want to point them to
> http://read.regi.ubc.ca:8080/cll, which is a weblog of my experience going
> through it. Anyway, as my brain has slowly come back into service, I've
> looked around to see what activities were going on in the source code
> management world that I could add to.
>
> First, I tried to join Renegade CVS, but got no response to emails. Next, I
> stumbled upon the Apache Avalon project. This seemed tailor-made to the
> problem of developing a new server that is compatible with CVS. The concept
> is that a server fulfills a particular function, sometimes through many
> different protocols which in Avalon are called "blocks". So I envisioned
> writing a Versioning server with a CVS block and a WebDAV/DeltaV block.
>
> So I signed up once again to the DeltaV mailing list and what should I find
> but a reference to Subversion. Thus here I am, trailing this history behind me.
>
> How can I contribute? That is a good question, and one I'd like to leave
> for another email because I'd like to start a discussion on it, hopefully
> one that hasn't already occurred ad infinitum.
>
> My thanks to everyone for starting this project, and the good work you've
> all done so far.
Received on Sat Oct 21 14:36:22 2006