[Project-managers] Big improvements coming

[Ted Ralphs]

Hi project managers,

This e-mail is to bring you up to date regarding changes that will be 
occurring over the next few months in COIN-OR's project management 
infrastructure. The TLC has been planning for these changes for quite 
some time and we hope that you will find them to be helpful. We are 
doing our best to make the transition smooth and to provide you with as 
much information as possible along the way, but please feel free to ask 
questions and post feedback if things are not to your liking. Below are 
some of the changes we are planning to make and the timelines for making 
them. Again, we hope you find these changes to be a big improvement. 
Please let us know if they are not.

MOVE FROM CVS TO SUBVERSION
===========================

Perhaps the biggest change that will be occurring is that we will be 
changing our versioning system from CVS to a newer system called 
subversion. Although we have used CVS for many years and it has served 
us well, it seems we have now outgrown it. Subversion is a much more 
capable system that, although it is not that different in many respects, 
does offer some big advantages and may also take some getting used to. 
We have started to put together some Wiki pages to explain the use of 
subversion and how it differs from CVS here:

http://projects.coin-or.org/BuildTools/wiki/pm-svn
http://projects.coin-or.org/TODO

The basic commands are almost exactly as in CVS, so the transition 
should not be too bad. There are already a number of new projects set up 
and using subversion, so we have some experience with it. Our plan is to 
move projects from CVS to subversion in three phases. After each project 
is moved, the project's CVS repository will be frozen, but not removed. 
Future commits will have to be made to subversion after that point. 
However, users will still be able to check out the old code from CVS. 
Eventually, CVS may be taken down, but we will leave it up as long as we 
need to in order to ensure a smooth transition. For complete details of 
the planned transition, please see:

http://projects.coin-or.org/CoinTLC/wiki/MeetingNotes052506

MOVE TO TRAC PROJECT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
======================================

In concert with the move to subversion, we will also be setting up a 
full project management Web site for each project. The project 
management software we have chosen is called Trac. As with subversion, 
there are a number of people who are using it already, and it seems to 
offer a lot of great features, as well as being very intuitive and easy 
to use. Each project will get its own site including issue tracking, 
source code browsing, tools for creating timelines, and a fully 
integrated project Wiki Web page. For an example of what a Trac site 
looks like, please see:

http://projects.coin-or.org/Ipopt

For more information on setting up your project's Trac page, please see:

http://projects.coin-or.org/TODO

MOVE TO GNU AUTOTOOLS
=====================

Those who have been around COIN-OR for a while know the trials and 
tribulations of the COIN-OR build system. We have struggled over the 
years to keep it working well and to port it to new architectures as new 
users join the community. Finally, we have decided to move from our own 
custom system of makefiles for building the core libraries to a system 
using the GNU autotools, which offer a wide array of automated scripts 
for building codes on a wide range of platforms. Thanks mostly to 
Andreas Waechter, we have now completed the conversion of most of the 
projects that currently use the COIN build system and will be making the 
switch when we move to subversion. If your project does not currently 
use the COIN build system, you will not be affected by this change 
initially. However, it should be relatively easy for project managers 
who want to take advantage of the use of the GNU autotools to use the 
infrastructure we have put together to create their own automated build 
system. Information on the new build system is contained at the build 
tools project site:

http://projects.coin-or.org/BuildTools

MAILING LIST REORGANIZATION
===========================

As part of our spring cleaning effort, we will also be reorganizing the 
mailing lists, so that every project has its own mailing list(s). For 
the current policy on project mailing lists, please see

http://projects.coin-or.org/CoinTLC/wiki/MailingLists

TRANSITION PLAN
===============

Over the next few weeks, you will be hearing much more regarding the 
above outlined changes. We will try to keep you apprised as each step is 
taken and we would appreciate if you would give us as much feedback as 
you can. To make this transition as smooth as possible for everyone, we 
need to know if everything is working, so please try to break things and 
let us know how you did it! Thanks for your support and have a great and 
productive summer.

Cheers,

The Technical Leadership Council,
COIN-OR Foundation