“Free software, the theory goes, is in a constant state of
release. Instead of working in secret for years to produce a
Grand Unified Model of Everything, then unleashing it on an
unsuspecting world to the accompaniment of television commercials
and full-page ads in trade magazines, development occurs in public
view. That’s aided, in no small part, by the convenience of CVS. So
argues Karl Fogel in his introduction to Open Source Development
with CVS. In that case, why not try it yourself?”
” Interspersed between CVS How-To chapters are Developer How-To
chapters. For example, chapter 3 describes the author’s theories on
the entire Open Source process. That includes such common-sense
advice as “Release something useful” and “Release something
usable.” There’re plenty of examples to back up these ideas, drawn
from the examples of large and popular open source projects.”
“CVS-specific chapters build on each other. Though 95% of the
commands the average developer will ever use are covered in chapter
two, the increasingly specific information just may come in handy
someday. Though there’s a price to pay for flexibility, the
increased power it brings is worth it. If you’ve followed the
examples and done some testing of your own, you’ll have earned the
title ‘CVS Guru’ by the end of chapter six.”