Re: [DG: User Experience] Proposal to move Sakai 3 UX code to Git and Github

> Oszkar,
> Thanks for this. It makes sense to use only one source control system
> for Kernal and 3akai.
>
> Thanks for the list of resources.
>
> I'll add to your list that there is a Git plug-in for Aptana/Eclipse. I
> haven't used it yet but it looks like I will.
>
> By the way, folks should consider at Aptana Studio as an IDE for
> front-end development. Basically a flavor of Eclipse that favors
> front-end developers. (http://www.aptana.org/) [I just noticed that
> version 2.0 of Aptana came two days ago. Many on the forums are
> suggesting sticking with version 1.5.1 until they work some bugs out.]
>
> - Eli
>
> On Oct 29, 2009, at 4:56 PM, Oszkar Nagy wrote:
>
>> As momentum is building up around Sakai 3, I am trying to find better
>> ways of organizing our work, and tools which makes people's life easier
>> who are working on anything UX related in Sakai 3. Up until now there
>> were only a handful of people contributing code and design, but now that
>> more and more developers and designers are joining in I think it's time
>> to put procedures, documentation and tools in place which help easy
>> development and contribution, especially for those who are not
>> necessarily well versed in coding.
>>
>> In the light of this as a first step, I would like to propose a change
>> in our version control system, namely to move the UX code from SVN to
>> Git and Github. If you are wondering what is SVN, Git or version control
>> in general please have a look at the bottom of this page where you'll
>> find links to pages which will explain. For those who are familiar with
>> version control systems, you'll find links to comparisons with SVN,
>> GUIs, and other geeky stuff.
>>
>> You might be wondering why change if we have a system in place, so here
>> are my personal reasons built up from my experiences working with
>> Sakai 3 UX code so far:
>>
>> + Git's distributed model in many ways fits better to the real world
>> model in which we are working on UX code.
>>
>> + Ability to view, download and follow the code in an easy to use
>> interface through Github makes it more accessible and attractive for non
>> technical people.
>>
>> + The Sakai 3 Kernel is using this system with success so far, and so
>> does many other big open source projects as you can see on Git's
>> homepage. Moving to the same system as the Kernel is using would mean
>> one need to be familiar with only one system to develop for Sakai.
>>
>> + Merging and managing patches are far more easier than SVN, which means
>> less work for people who review and merge/patch code, and less conflicts.
>>
>> + Good, free visual tools which are available on many platforms (see
>> below for examples), no need to learn the command line to work with it
>> necessarily.
>>
>> + No need to administer commit access, but have the ability to maintain
>> a master branch, with tagged snapshots for testing and releases.
>>
>> + Less fear to mess things up, commits are cheaper.
>>
>> + As the repository is stored locally on the developer's machine, there
>> is easy access to complete history.
>>
>> + For me personally the tree/branch concept was easier to understand
>> conceptually, I am primarily non-technical minded.
>>
>> + Stable and very fast, also needs less space than SVN.
>>
>> + Sakai JIRA has Git commit integration, so issue tracking can continue
>> as with SVN.
>>
>> + Github is free (for what we need as an open source project) and has
>> been stable so far for the Kernel.
>>
>>
>> Under the new system the code would be available to check out from
>> Github (or download as a zip or tar file), with tagged versions for
>> testing. I (or whoever is maintainer) would maintain a master branch and
>> merge in patches from everyone who is working on a branch, after
>> reviewing against the Sakai 3 UX Guidelines (will follow, please see
>> below).
>>
>>
>> These are my reasons for proposing the move, aligned with other UX guys
>> here at Cambridge, but please let me know if anybody has any objections,
>> comments or advice. Otherwise I am happy to arrange the migration.
>>
>>
>> Oszkar
>>
>> PS
>> As a next step I am aiming to put together comprehensive Sakai 3 UX
>> coding guidelines (HTML, CSS and JavaScript), which will follow shortly
>> as something to discuss and might answer previous guideline related
>> questions.
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Git Resources:
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Introduction to version control:
>> http://betterexplained.com/articles/a-visual-guide-to-version-control/
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revision_control
>>
>> Git home page:
>> http://git-scm.com
>>
>> Github:
>> http://github.com
>>
>> Git - SVN Crash Course
>> http://git.or.cz/course/svn.html
>>
>> Git for web designers:
>> http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/03/intro-to-git-for-web-designers/
>>
>> More in-depth tutorial, understanding how Git works:
>> http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~cduan/technical/git/
>>
>> Git - SVN comparison:
>> http://git.or.cz/gitwiki/GitSvnComparsion
>>
>>
>> GUIs, visual tools (Git has a built in one, but these are better):
>>
>> GitX (Mac)
>> http://gitx.frim.nl/
>>
>> QGit (Win, Source)
>> http://sourceforge.net/projects/qgit/
>>
>> GitCola (Win, Mac, Linux)
>> http://cola.tuxfamily.org/index.html
>>
>>
>>
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>
> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
>
> Eli Cochran
> user interaction developer
> ETS, UC Berkeley
>
>