Live builds (was: Merged proto package)

[Mark Kettenis]

> From: Keith Packard <keithp at keithp.com>
> Date: Sat, 17 Apr 2010 21:17:28 -0700
> 
> On Fri, 16 Apr 2010 21:57:47 +0200, <olafBuddenhagen at gmx.net> wrote:
> 
> > I don't see why other distributions can't provide something similar.
> > Even without true live bulids, IMHO this makes the whole point about
> > xserver being too hard to build pretty moot.
> 
> Not really; except for Gentoo, all these kinds of builds ever see are
> somewhere along 'master', so you can't go get bits from some other tree
> and build those. We're stuck in a linear world right now, and I'd like
> to make more parallel development possible.

And really, if you want people to go beyond mere testing, and would
like them to contribute back code they pretty much have to compile
from a git tree.

I just occasionally contribute code to X.org, but I'd like to do more.
However in many cases my attempts go a bit like this:

1. Update my checked out Xserver master tree.  Realize that I had some
   uncommitted fixes in there.  Spend half an hour googling git
   documentation how to recover from the fact that I now have a tree
   with merge conflicts.  (I don't use git on a regular basis).

2. Run configure for Xserver.  Figure out that I need proto package X.

3. Checkout proto package X.  Run configure, figure out that I need a
   new macros package.

4. Run configure for Xserver again.  Figure out that I need proto package Y.

etc. etc. 

Typically by the time I've gone through the trouble of doing a dozen
of these iterations, I run out of time.  When I come back at it a week
(or a month) later, I have to start all over again.

So I very much *do* believe that reducing the number of git modules
needed to build the server will increase my productivity and increase
the number of diffs you'll see from me.