BazaarWin32Port

BazaarWin32Port

Status

Introduction

Building win32 versions of baz is a different problem from making a high-quality implementation of win32 Baz available.

Rationale

Baz's adoption is limited by its inability to be used on win32 fully. Getting a first class win32 port is an important step along the path to utopia. Utopia in this case means everyone using Baz, joining hands and singing around the world.

Open source projects that support Win32 will ignore Baz if it does not support Win32. So to reach more people and be more useful, we need Win32 support.

Scope and Use Cases

Due to lack of resources, this spec proposes involving volunteers, who have already demonstrated an interest in porting to Windows, in working on the Baz win32 port.

Possibly-interested volunteers include:

  • Johannes Berg
  • Lode Leroy
  • John A. Meinel

These volunteers will need the proper resources in order to complete the work in an efficient manner, such that it will be to the benefit of themselves, the community and Canonical.

Implementation Plan

This plan is to be put into action before win32 builds can begin. At some point, the two plans will be running simultaneously. Ultimately, the win32 port will be completely integrated into the mainline, and any porting will be incidental.

Required resources

  • Canonical must allocate 10 staff hours a week to Win32 shepherding, until such time as the win32 work has been completely integrated into the mainline.
  • Canonical must provide PQM services for the win32 branch. This will ultimately include running the test suite under Windows.

Canonical will announce that Win32 porting is a major objective for the next and following releases of baz. This announcement should cover the approach being taken, i.e. native win32, not cygwin, and not Microsoft SFU. A bazaar--win32--$VERSION branch will be opened. Committer access to the win32 branch will be offered to well-known windows porters in the Arch community. The shepherd will identify the tla port that appears to be the best base, possibly in concert with the other Arch windows porters, and may do the work of applying those changes to Baz. It seems likely that one of the Cygwin ports will serve as the best basis for a win32 port.

The win32 shepherd will have the following responsibilities

  • Apply acceptable changes to the mainline
  • Advise porters what changes they need to make so that their work is acceptable for the mainline.
  • Ensure that the porters have all the resources they need (including, e.g. apis) to be effective.
  • Ensure that the baz mainline is regularly merged into the win32 branch.

A month after the initial announcement, Canonical will assess whether the strategy of using volunteer effort appears to be successful, and if it is not, explore other options for producing a Win32 port.

Packages Affected

  • Bazaar

CategoryUdu CategorySpec

UbuntuDownUnder/BOFs/BazaarWin32Port (last edited 2008-08-06 16:13:34 by localhost)