RE: Branching strategy question

[Arthur Barrett]

Tim,

> So should I stick with the original strategy and always 
> branch off of the trunk ? 

As Todd wrote - you only NEED to branch when there will be a clear
conflict over time (eg: release 1 maintenance versus release 2
development).  

Note: CVS only stores a single revision of the source code, and all
other "variations" are a delta to that.  The one "genuine" copy is the
HEAD.  So if the majority of changes happen on a branch then you are
creating a lot of extra work for your CVS Server.

I've seen branches also used to try and create a "reserved" model of
development, or to create "change sets" - if you need those features
then you are better off using CVSNT (free/GPL just like CVS, Unix,
Linux, Max, Windows) which has native support for those things plus
Audit, mergepoints etc etc.

If you don't know how CVS can handle two developers both working on the
same file at the same time then you should read up about CVS more - the
"Essential CVS" O'rielly book is good or "All About CVS" (eBook only)
which I helped to write.

Regards,


Arthur Barrett