[Twisted-Python] On splitting Twisted into subprojects

[Christopher Armstrong]

Mary Gardiner wrote:

Hi Mary; Sorry I haven't kept up with the discussion about the Twisted 
split lately.

> This is intended to spark a little more discussion on splitting Twisted
> into subprojects, as discussed on Aussie-time on IRC (Jerub, jml, spiv
> and myself).
> 
> It seems like the twisted-web project are planning to split off fairly
> soon: see
> http://twistedmatrix.com/pipermail/twisted-web/2004-April/000312.html

Actually, I'm going to beat them to it: Jp and I are going to be 
splitting off twisted.news this weekend. (*looks around for Jp*)

> It's pretty likely that this split will go ahead without any kind of
> imposed-from-above decisions about where the website will go, what the
> release cycle will look like, where the docs will move to, what the
> status of shared docs will be (I tend to focus on docs...)

Web site will be somewhere on twistedmatrix.com. How about:

   http://projects.twistedmatrix.com/<projectname>
?

> The nightmare scenario for splitting twisted into subprojects is that
> every subproject develops its own release code, release procedures,
> testing framework, website, documentation style, community, policies...
> etc etc. And shortly after that we all spiral into the sun or something.

I've been working on the release automation the last few days. At 
*least* the SVN release process workflow will probably remain the same 
between all projects; I'll be splitting release-twisted off into a 
module in twisted.python soon to facilitate other projects using it.

We *want* to keep the community, documentation styles, web site, 
policies, all integrated fairly well. A little more on this later..

>  2. Release code, release procedures, testing framework, website,
>  documentation style, community, policies... imposed from above

Ok. :-)

>  3. Twisted Web (or whatever other project splits first) acting as a
>  "model split": evolving release mechanisms, policy etc etc that are
>  fundamentally sane and wonderful so that noone would think of doing
>  things any other way.

Well, this is why I'm starting with twisted.news. I'll also probably get 
to a few more projects before the web split occurs, all of them less 
popular. news, flow, (im, words), lore, conch, probably in something 
like that order.

Web is going to be more complex, because they're doing a rewrite now, 
and they don't know how they want to integrate nevow, etc...

> I personally would like to offer my help in documenting subproject
> procedures as they evolve, and storing that documentation in some kind
> of prominent place.

You posted about the documentation a short while ago, and I'll respond 
about it here.

Mary wants the documentation to be kept in a single project. I don't 
think this is how it should be done; we'll allow each project to keep 
its own doc/ directory. Each project should be responsible for its own 
documentation, but I can personally ensure that you have access to the 
docs for all the projects, though, Mary. :-)

HOWEVER, don't worry that the documentation will become disparate in any 
user-visible sense. All projects will have their documentation visible 
somewhere within twistedmatrix.com/, and we could even have a monolithic 
"docs" section that links to all the others if we find it becomes 
necessary (I think the current 'howto' page is an absolute mess, though).

The "Twisted Book" is up for debate; personally, I don't care about it, 
and I'd be inclined to just have a per-project "Book" (collection of 
HOWTOs in ps/pdf form). If people really think it's a good idea, though, 
there's no reason that we can't have the same monolithic book.

-- 
  Twisted | Christopher Armstrong: International Man of Twistery
   Radix  |          Release Manager,  Twisted Project
---------+           http://radix.twistedmatrix.com/
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