[vtk-developers] Developer guidlines required

[Prabhu Ramachandran]

Dear David and Will,

Thanks for your replies.

>>>>> "David" == David Gobbi <dgobbi at irus.rri.on.ca> writes:

    David> Please do.  That's what vtk-developers is for, isn't it?
    David> This mailing list is used much less than it should be,
    David> IMHO.

Okay, so I will keep writing.

    David> There is also the FAQ,
    David> http://public.kitware.com/cgi-bin/vtkfaq, which VTK
    David> developers can make additions to.

I forgot about that. Thanks.

<snip>
    David> When I do a cvs commit, I always provide the paths/names of
    David> each of the files I want to commit.  I never to a raw 'cvs
    David> commit'.  I haven't ever used .cvsignore.  I have several
    David> copies of the CVS tree on different computers, and each is
    David> substantially different from the repository.  I've made a
    David> couple mistakes, but my CVS access hasn't been revoked :)

Okay.  I guess I will do it this way too.  I will commit individual
files.  Sometimes, like my first submission you have to change _lots_
of files (I think I changed over 270 files) you might be in trouble
but maybe in that case I will get a fresh cvs tree and just make these
changes and do a raw commit.
 
<snip>

    David> Heavens, no.  I run individual regression tests for the
    David> classes that I think might be affected (though sometimes
    David> this does mean _all_ classes).  But checking the dashboard
    David> the next day is important.  Remember that the nightly build
    David> starts at 20:00 New York time, so you should commit before
    David> 16:00 or 17:00 so that the continuous build has enough time
    David> to test your changes.

Ahh. Okay thanks, that shouldnt be too hard for me to do.

    >> (6) How do you handle multiple versions of VTK.  Right now I
    >> have vtk-3.2 installed (system wide).  When you build the CVS
    >> tree and run the tests etc., do you simply set LD_LIBRARY_PATH
    >> (or something else under windows) and test?  What do you folks
    >> think is the best way to all this.

    David> Whatever way you want.  I use a LD_LIBRARY_PATH,
    David> PYTHONPATH, and VTK_TK_WIDGET_PATH set up in my .cshrc.

Yes, thats what I meant.

    >> (7) Currently VTK doesnt version the libraries.  Why is this?
    >> Cant we add a library version or something?

    David> through on each platform that VTK runs on, and my gut
    David> feeling is that adding version numbers will entail a fair
    David> bit of support-type work before everyone is happy with the
    David> result.  Of course, I also feel that these sort of
    David> 'tidiness' changes are something that VTK really needs.

    David> Note, though, that the general rule for numbered libraries
    David> is that no APIs are changed or deprecated unless the major
    David> version number of the library changes.  Right now, no-one
    David> has taken on the role of 'API watchdog' to ensure that this
    David> actually happens with VTK.  Maybe it's something that could
    David> be added to the dashboard in the future, i.e.  every time a
    David> major version of VTK is released a full snapshot of API
    David> could be taken, and the API of the nightlies could be
    David> compared on a daily basis and compatibility issues could be
    David> flagged.

Yeah, this might be good for some future work.  


thanks
prabhu