Re: Subversion and RPG source change management

From: Dan Kimmel
There's a bunch of stuff mixed up here and it is confusing everyone.
Subversion is version source control. Not change management.

You and others have made that point before. And it's a good one. I've made an effort to structure all my remarks in the context of using Subversion ONLY for source code. I'm not trying to promote a discussion about managing executable objects, which would obviously have broader scope.

On the other hand, Subversion does support release levels (tags). You can have release cut-offs, where complete copies of related directories & files are made under release-level (tag) directories. That's about the extent of my understanding of "change management".

You do not need a branch.

I agree with that. Subversion may support branches, but as I said earlier, I personally would prefer not going there. I'd rather use a graphical PC client for handling branches, if the need were to arise. I'd rather not broaden the scope of an IBM i specific implementation.

In the context that has been used here, the source files in a library
are the working copy.

I understand the point. And I've been supporting that idea throughout the discussion. But more recently, for clarity sake, we might need a new term to distinguish our product libraries from their corresponding IFS directories (which would be needed for syncing with Subversion repositories).

I hope that my latest comments about checking source between our product libraries, and individual programmer libraries, are not adding to the confusion.

-Nathan.