[p4] Workspace option: exclusive open

[Slava Imeshev]

> -----Original Message-----
> 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?

I'd say automation could be a good thing here in this case.

> We've tried some. It tends to fall apart for the general case 
> since each team has different requirements and there are 
> inter-product dependencies. 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).

Ahh, that's too bad. I've been going to say that we might have a
solution that addresses your problem :)

> 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.

It is well-known best practice in SCM to limit changes to the release
branch to bug fixes. Refactoring, rewrites, code re-formatting should
be enjoyed in the mainline. This way efforts to merge changes from the
branch to mainline are minimal. So, it's just a matter of educating
your team.

Regards,

Slava Imeshev
www.viewtier.com