[Contrib: Evaluation System] 1.3.x next (and final?) RC

[Nicola Monat-Jacobs]

Rick -

> I'm wondering why code would be merged from 1.3.x into trunk.  I understood that trunk is always the most current version of the code and 1.3.x, etc is simply a point in time version of the code.  Also that all development work should be done against trunk.  Are my assumptions correct?

It has to do with the conventions of svn use - trunk, branch and tag. You're correct about trunk - it is the most recent version of the code and it's where the work should be done.

Tags (like 1.3.0, for example) are a 'snapshot' of the code at a certain point in time and do not change. That's why all the release candidates are tags (1.3.0-RC1).

1.3.x is a branch, which sort of attempts to split the difference. The idea is that the tool might be code-frozen functionality-wise for QA testing, but any bug fixes might still need to be committed. Meanwhile devs want to continue to work on new features for 1.4, so the general rule of thumb right now, during QA, is:

New Features only get committed to trunk (and ultimately will be part of the 1.4 series)
Bug fixes get committed trunk and then to 1.3.x 

Sometimes people will also use branches if they need an area to work on a particular new feature but it's going to take a while and they don't want to mess up anyone else. So, you'll often see folders in the branch folder with certain JIRA ids - it indicates which project the users of that branch are working on.

- Nicola