Difference between revisions of "Contribution"

Revision as of 23:33, 22 July 2009

Overview

Open source projects are great because they allow anybody to modify the code to suit their needs. However, this has a few major drawbacks:

• It's difficult to keep your version in sync with the official version.
  • You could try to get your changes patched into the official version.
    • The project maintainers may not want your changes.
    • You may disagree with the overall direction of the project either now or in the future.
• It's difficult for others to benefit from your changes.
  • Again, you could try getting into the official project.
    • Same problems as above.
  • You could start a new project around your code.
    • This causes a lot of duplicated effort.
    • Project maintainance is sometimes complex.
• It's difficult for others to contribute to your version.
  • Once more, getting your changes into the official project may be possible.
    • Still suffers from the same problems.
  • Again, you can make a new project.
    • Suffers from the same problems as above.
    • Doesn't even completely solve the problem since contributors and/or their patches have to be validated/verified and added to the project manually anyway.

Contribution is an attempt to make collaboration simpler by keeping track of every modification to a project, even the "unofficial" ones.

Features

• Every commit is a branch.
• Anybody can commit patches, even anonymously.
• No real distinction between "official" and "unofficial" branches.
• Multiple branches may be merged into a new revision.
• Each revision may be signed by the author.
• Repository browsing clearly shows the multiple paths of development without clutter through creative use of filters.