[mythtv-users] Recording storage suggestions

[Michael T. Dean]

On 05/24/2007 09:40 AM, Phill Wiggin wrote:
> On 5/23/07, Michael T. Dean <mtdean at thirdcontact.com> wrote:
>   
>> If you were to start using SVN trunk now, you'd actually have to read
>> back through all the information that's come through -dev and -commits
>> since the release of 0.20 (unless you're willing to leach information
>> off people who have been following along).
>>     
> Can you explain why this is?  I know I didn't do it, and my system
> works swimmingly.
>   
>> It will be /much/ easier to
>> upgrade when everyone else is doing so when 0.21 is released.  At that
>> point, documentation--such as release notes and changelogs and tons of
>> info on the wiki--will be available to "catch you up."  If you upgrade
>> now, /you/ are responsible for doing all the research required to catch up.
>>     
> I agree that if someone were installing SVN as a clean install, they'd
> have some homework to do to find out what is available in a particular
> SVN build.  But, my suggestions were based on a person knowing what's
> in .20 and what added functionality is in SVN.  I was suggesting using
> SVN if .20 doesn't have what you need, but SVN does.
>   
>> If your plan is a "one-time-upgrade-to-SVN-trunk" just to get some
>> features, leaching off others is not very considerate.
>>     
>  How so?  Honestly, if I'm willing to do the research if something
> breaks or doesn't work right, how am I inconsiderate?
>   

By "leaching" I was referring to users who set it up and send a bunch of 
messages to the -dev and/or -users lists asking questions that were 
specifically answered in previous -commits or -dev threads (i.e. when 
the feature was developed/added).  There are a lot of messages asking 
questions about works in progress or known bugs or whatever that don't 
contribute to solving them, but only waste the time of the person who's 
kind enough to reiterate the situation for the person who hasn't been 
doing his homework.  If it's an occasional thing by someone who's 
contributing back, it's not a big deal.  If every user who wanted 
storage groups did it--and some significant portion didn't contribute 
back--it would steal a bunch of time from the already-lacking-time 
people who are trying to contribute back.

>> If, however, you
>> do plan to keep up with Myth development from now on and to contribute
>> code back into Myth, the leaching is more like "borrowing" (so make sure
>> you pay it back :), but in truth, working through the code yourself is
>> the best way to get the information/experience you need to start
>> contributing to Myth development.
>>     
> I guess I'm put off a bit by your assertion that I'm "leaching".  If a
> person is using free software and causing no stress to the devs.  How
> is that negative?  I suggest using SVN in the same manner as any other
> Free software: If you use it, great. If you find a bug, do some
> research and submit a bug report.

If you're not asking questions that were already answered or reporting 
invalid tickets, you're not leaching.

> I agree that when a person steps into the SVN waters, he/she needs to
> do so with the understanding that it's _not_ the release version, may
> have glitches, and is expected to either be competent enough to at
> least submit a bug report

After verifying that the behavior is in fact a bug and not a 
misconfiguration or misunderstanding.  We get plenty of invalid tickets 
about the much-better-documented 0.20 version.  We don't need a bunch of 
invalid tickets about the not-so-well-documented-yet SVN trunk version.

>  or tuck-tail and reinstall the release
> version.
>   

With an appropriate pre-upgrade backup.

My main point is that SVN trunk is /not/ for general use.  If it were, 
it would be released for general use.

Mike