[BLACKBOX] Version Control

From: [at]} <Aubrey.McIntosh{>
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 2009 17:58:19 -0600

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Oh, I am unfocused and this will ramble. Please feel free to skip.

I have a program, Gather, that I first coded many years ago. It reads
source, and understands the IMPORT assignment. I had thought it to be
a mature program, that the only wrinkles in using it were
documentation and user understanding issues.

I have developed a practice of keeping many versions of the source to
a program as I make changes, and only saving source when I have a
"clean" compile. I bump a minor version number when I work on a new
aspect. This may be very minor, such as changing the definition of 1
or 2 RECORDS and propagating the necessary work through the source.

In this practice, there may be many files as time goes by. Each of
these sources generates a binary of the same name, and all the sources
that import it remain unchanged as I work, possibly unloading many
modules then reloading them during debug.

This_01.Mod --> MODULE This; IMPORT That; END This.
This_02.Mod --> MODULE This; IMPORT That; TYPE T1*:INTEGER; END This.
This_03.Mod --> MODULE This; IMPORT That; TYPE T1*:LONGINT; END This.

So I went to use Gather in its intended purpose, to read a list of
source file names and then to produce the list of all necessary and
available sources in a correct compile order.

For a very discouraging moment, I thought I had found a very serious
bug in a program I thought was now part of the bedrock. I gave the
list of the versions I wanted, This_03.Mod, That_04.Mod. It sought
out the sources This.Mod, That.Mod, and not the versions. :-(

After much reading of the source, the documentation, and running the
example programs, I have decided that it actually is working as it
should, but that I have always had a subtle misunderstanding of how I
manage and document versions. The Gather program implies that when I
release a new minor version number, the IMPORT statement of my various
client programs should change, and the module name of the various
library modules should also change.

(*library config 1*) MODULE This; IMPORT That := That_01; END This.
(*library config 2*) MODULE This; IMPORT That := That_02; END This.
(*library item*) MODULE That_02; END That_02.

I have not gone back into my current project to make this so. I think
I am more discouraged than if my trusted program had actually been
badly broken. It means that I have to change a work practice to be
more clear headed. My thoughts are that this will all be more in the
"Oberon" tradition, because the source will actually statically
document the version that is in use. I am just rebelling in the same
way I did when I had to declare variables the first time I used a
Wirth language. I envision a directory that is really, really full of
source and binary files of different version numbers.

Well, it is a cold and rainy day, I am drinking coffee and pondering
the implications of all this. I'd love to have the wisdom of others
who have worked on large and evolving projects. I may (or not) go
change a lot of source files and see what I can see.

-- 
-- 
Aubrey McIntosh, Ph.D.
1502 Devon Circle
Austin TX 78723-1814
http://home.grandecom.net/~amcintosh/aubrey/Search/
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Received on Wed Dec 30 2009 - 00:58:19 UTC