Recipes vs. Looms vs. pipelines

[Barry Warsaw]

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On Dec 16, 2009, at 02:20 PM, Aaron Bentley wrote:

>Barry Warsaw wrote:
>> When I'm developing bug fix or feature branches, I
>> always like to have the devel branch as the bottom thread in my loom.  Note
>> too though that I want control over when I update the bottom thread
>> independently of when I update the devel branch.
>
>What advantages does that gives you?  Do you find you miss those when
>working on non-loom branches?

It allows me to very easily merge changes that are happening all the time on
devel with my feature or bug fix, but on my schedule.  I might update the
Launchpad devel branch while I'm in the middle of my bug fix, for various
reasons (e.g. I'm working on more than one branch at a time, I want to see how
"pristine" trunk works, etc.).  When my branch is ready for review, I want to
pull in devel's updates and merge them up my stack.

I do miss this when working on non-loom branches, but of course a 'bzr merge
../devel' is the moral equivalent.  It doesn't /feel/ the same though:

loom                            non-loom
- ----                            --------
bzr down-thread rocketfuel      bzr merge ../devel
bzr pull                        bzr commit -m'Merge rocketfuel'
bzr up-thread --auto

>> This is something that feels more natural to me in looms than in pipelines.
>
>bzr-pipeline is meant to allow you to use your normal development habits
>as much as possible.  In fact, a normal branch is also a pipeline with a
>single pipe.  When you are normally working on a normal branch, the lack
>of an upstream pipe should feel perfectly natural, so why does it feel
>less natural when you add a second pipe?

See above for the specific answer: normal branches in fact do not feel as
natural to me, though I often forgo looms for expediency when I'm working on a
simple or quick fix.  It's a decision I have to make upfront and I don't
always get it right (for example, the branch becomes more complex than I
expected, or I get distracted in the middle of it for a few days).

One of the other things that just rubs me wrong about pipelines is that they
require lightweight checkouts.  I can't explain it, but lightweight checkouts
have just never felt "right" to me.

- -Barry
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