The Different Development Modes

This page is definitely in-progress.

Commit-Then-Review

C-T-R mode (CTR) is short for "Commit-then-Review". This is the standard development mode that we operate in. It means that committers may commit patches to the development tree without the code/rules/etc being reviewed by other committers first. Typically SVN trunk is in C-T-R mode until a new release is approaching. We then either switch trunk to R-T-C mode or use a branch that is in R-T-C mode (see below) for the final development up to release, to stabilise the codebase.

Changes to the latest branch (3.3, as of April 2011) are made by committing to trunk, then voting into the branchWhen using a branch for development (e.g., when trunk was being used for 4.0, while development for 3.4.x was done in a 3.4 branch) any fix or change for an issue that applies to both trunk and branch should be committed first to trunk, then to the branch, to ensure that the change is not inadvertently left out of trunk. When trunk is in C-T-R mode and the branch is in R-T-C mode this would require a vote after the commit is applied to trunk but before the commit is applied to the branch.  Note that this workflow is likely to change if the project moves from using svn to git, which more commonly makes use of feature branches for testing followed by a pull release to apply to a master (trunk) branch rather than committing to master first.

Review-Then-Commit

R-T-C mode (RTC) is short for "Review-then-Commit".

...

• documentation
• finishing off pre-existing T_ tests
• changes to rules in the "rules" or "rulesrc" trees
• non-controversial non-semantic style changes (fixing indentation, adding comments, but not actual code)
• very simple, non-controversial, and absolutely safe bug fixes (i.e.: removing repetitive my() enclosing sections)

These can be applied without a vote.

...