[fpc-devel] [RFC] Modernising the FPC Release Process -- Proposal for Review

[Michael Van Canneyt]

On Sat, 18 Apr 2026, Marco van de Voort via fpc-devel wrote:

>
> Op 18-4-2026 om 16:08 schreef Michael Van Canneyt via fpc-devel:
>>
>>>>
>>>> It is about MR from 3rd party.
>>>>
>>>> My point was that since we have gitlab, the merging of user 
>>>> contributions
>>>> goes way faster than the SVN+Mantis procedure, where we had to 
>>>> download and apply patches manually. Anyone denying that is denying 
>>>> the light of the sun.
>>>
>>> Still that is different than the proposal.
>>
>> It is not.
>>
> My point is your math doesn't add up even for the main list, and the 
> whole release angle is even more far fetched.
>
> Let's get back to releasing, how many of those merge requests have you 
> merged to fixes?

For lack of an agreed procedure, none obviously.

That's the whole reason why I'm proposing a schedule that IMO would help.

>
>>>> Given the amount of work I do on MRs, if I can flag and later or 
>>>> immediatly merge MRs to a fixes branch, it would be a huge time saver.
>>>
>>> So maybe 50 of your MRs apply,
>>
>> Since I am the one doing the work, I think I'm better placed to judge:
>> It will be more than 400, I assure you.
>>
>> I'll be mild: The day when you reached 200 merged MRs, we'll talk again.
>> Maybe at that point you'll have enough experience with it to accurately
>> judge the advantages it brings (or not).
>
> That is /mild/ in your book? After having done 75% plus of all merging 
> since FPC 2.0.4 ? Maybe 20000+ revisions or more?

Wait: I was in no way diminishing your work on SVN. Far from it.

I was talking solely about MR's you handled in gitlab. 7 is a too fow to
form a good opinion. I do more than 7 every week at work. And I worked with
svn as an integrator at work for 14 years, I worked longer with FPC on svn
(albeit not as integrator).

So I think I'm (currently) in a better position than you to judge the
advantage of gitlab.

I'm just saying that you should maybe try to appreciate what gitlab has on
offer. Judging from aside, I can only say that you've opposed git and gitlab from
the start and that you've never given the tool the chance it IMO deserves.

Michael.