[p4] branching for version control - small companies

[Jim Jarrett]

On Fri, 22 Jun 2001 08:02:05 -0700, Mark Lentczner <markl at glyphic.com> wrote

>Frankly, branching is so efficient in p4, that you should probably always
>use a branch instead of a label.


Oooh, I have to disagree here.  It may not strain the system but it's 
"cognitively inefficent", at least with the software layout we have.

Each product or major subcomponent (like the TIFF library, or JPEG 
lib or whatever) is a top-level entry in our depot.

Adding a branch at that level makes the depot messy (IMO) to 
interpret.  Adding branches inside each subcomponent breaks 
makefiles/project files.

Maybe with another layout strategy it wouldn't be so bad, but I 
prefer labels to mark milestones, branches to carry on parallel 
development (and then prune via reverse merge the branches ASAP).


+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Jim Jarrett                                                       |
| Eastman Kodak Co. - Professional Digital Cameras                  |
| 901 Elmgrove Road MC 35504                                        |
| Rochester, NY 14653-5504         Phone:(716) 726-6365             |
| jarrett at kodak.com           All opinions expressed are mine alone |
| http://www.kodak.com                                              |
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