On 27 May 2010 01:55, Matthew Brett <matthew.brett@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
>> Linux has Linus, ipython has Fernando, nipy has... well, I'm sure it is
>> somebody. Numpy and Scipy no longer have a central figure and I like it that
>> way. There is no reason that DVCS has to inevitably lead to a central
>> authority.
>
> I think I was trying to say that the way it looks as if it will be -
> before you try it - is very different from the way it actually is when
> you get there.   Anne put the idea very well - but I still think it is
> very hard to understand, without trying it, just how liberating the
> workflow is from anxieties about central authorities and so on.    You
> can just get on with what you want to do, talk with or merge from
> whoever you want, and the whole development process becomes much more
> fluid and productive.   And I know that sounds chaotic but - it just
> works.  Really really well.

One way to think of it is that there is no "main line" of development.
The only time the central repository needs to pull from the others is
when a release is being prepared. As it stands we do have a single
release manager, though it's not necessarily the same for each
version. So if we wanted, they could just go and pull and merge the
repositories of everyone who's made a useful change, then release the
results. Of course, this will be vastly easier if all those other
people have already merged each other's results (into different
branches if appropriate). But just like now, it's the release
manager's decision which changes end up in the next version.