[Leaplist] Defination

[John Simpson]

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On 2008-11-23, at 1840, Otto Gvert wrote:
>
> Well I had another word usage that needs to be defined.
>
> Compiz in version .8 is branched. What is branch or branching?
>
> While were at it lets add forked.

technically, a "branch" is a part of a tree, and a "fork" is a spot  
where one branch (closer to the trunk) splits off and becomes two  
branches (leading away from the trunk.)

when you're talking about the life cycle of a software project, a  
"branch" is a continuous string of updates, and a "fork" is where a  
new branch "splits" and go in a different direction, while not  
updating the original branch (or the "trunk".)

sometimes the code developed in these other branches is added back  
into the "trunk" code, after having been tested and proven on its own.  
and sometimes the idea which caused the branch is found to not be  
workable, and in that case the branch is abandoned (i.e. nobody works  
on it anymore.)

the word "fork" can also be used for a more abrupt separation- like  
how ipcop started. there was an earlier open-source project called  
"smoothwall", which worked fairly well, but the project's leader was a  
jerk- he was trying to build a commercial business off of the program,  
and was treating the other developers as if they were his employees.  
the other developers finally decided they had taken enough abuse from  
this guy, so they took a full copy of smoothwall's source code and  
used that as the starting point for ipcop. in that sense, ipcop could  
be said to be a "fork" of smoothwall (although most ipcop people would  
like to forget about that, like how during WWII the british and  
american governments down-played the fact that the english language is  
linguistically derived from german.)

- --------------------------------------------------------
| John M. Simpson  --  KG4ZOW  --  Programmer At Large |
| http://www.jms1.net/                 <jms1 at jms1.net> |
- --------------------------------------------------------
|   Hope for America  --  http://www.ronpaul2008.com/  |
- --------------------------------------------------------





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