[p4] Workspace option: exclusive open

[Ivey, William]

> The drawback with single large workspaces is that people who
> don't know what they are doing don't to a p4 sync #0 to get
> rid of local files, and this can end up inflating the size
> of the db.have table.

Is that actually worse with one workspace vs. multiple
workspaces, all synced as well? I would think 300 files
synced to one workspace would be no worse than 100 files
synced to each of three workspaces. In either case, most
branches wouldn't be fully synced in practice and when
drive space gets tight, it's a helpful reminder to clean
up.

> With that amount of propagation how possible is automation?

We've tried some. It tends to fall apart for the general
case since each team has different requirements and there
are inter-product dependancies. Also, there really are no
resources to develop an adaptable tool (or buy one - that
we haven't been forced to move to CVS yet is a bit of a
surprise to me).

One problem is refactoring. The enthusiasm for that varies
by team, but even in the most stodgy, a 2-3 year old
code base is often sufficiently different from the current
branch that integration is largely pro-forma with the real
work done essentially as an independent edit rather than a
real merge.

-Wm




-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Cowham [mailto:robert at vaccaperna.co.uk] 
Sent: Sunday, September 16, 2007 3:39 PM
To: Ivey, William; perforce-user at perforce.com
Subject: RE: [p4] Workspace option: exclusive open

> > Using GUI tools, changing the workspace in the drop-down or 
> by opening
> another window is an easy operation.
> 
> Easy, but not fast. There is a noticeable delay for me, and 
> I'm in the same building as the server. For our developers connecting
from
Europe and India, 
> it's really annoying. 

I have seen both practices used successfully - single large workspaces,
and
also one workspace per target branch.

The drawback with single large workspaces is that people who don't know
what
they are doing don't to a p4 sync #0 to get rid of local files, and this
can
end up inflating the size of the db.have table. It is often a good idea
to
do a sweep around from time to time and tidy up such things. I have seen
this quite often when auditing perforce usage. I think you are perhaps
rather more in control than the average Perforce user!

> To do this five times (which would be required to propogate a 
> change to all the active branches, on average) is unacceptable. None
of
our developers 
> have that kind of patience. (Neither do their managers.)

With that amount of propagation how possible is automation?

> > You don't need to "see" the source branch in order to integrate from
> it (i.e. use it as the source of an integration).

> Technically, no, but my experience is that developers who 
> don't see both source and destination either make mistakes or forget
to
integrate at all.

Another argument for helpful automation?

> What was your experience before you switched to using 
> multiple workspaces? In my case, we've had zero problems related to
single
workspaces 
> and continuing problems with multiples. (Some of our developers do
create
multiple workspaces.
> That's where I see most of our problems.) I have to go with my own 
> experience on this one, your mileage may vary.

Your real world experience is very useful for all.

Robert