Rfay, sdboyer, and I talked today about the Git Migration time line today in the context of documentation, training, and support. The good news: we all felt that the current time line offered enough space to develop solid materials.
Below is an overview of what we'd like to see created, posted here for comment and brainstorming. This is the time and place to offer ideas, even if you can't implement them. It's also a great time to make a commitment to one or more areas if you're willing to take it on! Ideally we'll find someone willing to coordinate volunteers to work on each of the major headings below. :)
We are still on hold in several areas for actually starting the work (see the December 22 Git Migration Status Update for the detailed time line) but we're getting mighty close! As we believe it's possible to start on tasks, we'll be opening issues in the Great Git Migration issue queue.
Documentation creation and updates
- Git side basics
- Project side
- git GUI usage (smartgit)
- A very terse and direct Getting Started guide (concepts, command-line, and gui)
Screencasts
- Quick Start
- Basic Git usage with the patch workflow
- Module maintainer workflow
- Project tools on d.o.
Live support sessions (using conferencing technology like webex)
Starting at deployment and running weekly for a month or two afterward depending on interest. These would include a short presentation, followed by direct support and demonstration.
BoF Trainings @ DrupalCon
The idea is to arrange space to run several of these. I volunteered to take on arranging space and signing up moderators.
Materials / Ideas for User Group presentations
For distribution in March. The idea is to get every user group or similar gathering to have a training about the new git rollout. http://groups.drupal.org/node/91994 provides some starting resources (for git usage only)
Dedicated IRC channel for git support (#drupal-git-support?)
A number of volunteers would be asked to staff an IRC channel for git support after launch.
Comments
darn,, just lost my login
darn,, just lost my login cookies... had a nicer post than this, but essentially was this:
RE: documentation #3 - git GUI usage (smartgit)
I feel any preliminary tutorials should be FOSS focussed. For the typical drupal user, smartgit is neither free, nor FOSS. I can volunteer to do a writeup/screencast of a best practices workflow using Git Cola or QGit.
@brainstorm: ALL existing git documentation should be pruned, rewritten, and organized to live here: http://drupal.org/handbook/git (or somewhere similar). multiple locations adds confusion.
@brainstorm: ALL existing CVS documentation should be pruned.
some unorganized handbook posts exist here (think they should be moved/rewritten/pruned):
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mike stewart { twitter: @MediaDoneRight | IRC nick: mike stewart }
Looking forward to your participation!
Hi Mike - We'd love to have you aboard as we start into the home stretch on documentation and training. And you're welcome to start working on these already.
You're more than welcome to do a screencast on your favorite tool. We need as much training around as we can get. For GUI the "official" documentation (the organized handbook stuff) will be focused on SmartGit for the practical reason that it can be done once for 3 platforms. And many of us resist GUIs anyway :-)
Bottom line: Jump in! Thanks for your willingness to help.
seems Im a bit late to the
seems Im a bit late to the party re: a GitGUI FOSS client...
I don't have smartgit, I seldom use a gitGUI for more than browsing a repo. (FWIW, my favorite git repo viewer on linux is QGit - I added to handbook before I posted here). However, in the spirit of community and do-ocracy I'll commit to doing a screencast for git cola this week and customize the Zen Tutorial to support a linux gitGUI alternative.
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mike stewart { twitter: @MediaDoneRight | IRC nick: mike stewart }
I've been working with the
I've been working with the docs team on the preferred structure for the handbook. You can find the meta-issue for the handbook at [#1013996] jhodgdon's comments, reprinted at the bottom of the main issue, may prove helpful to you as you get started with git-cola.
I'll be dragging pages around off and on for the next day or two. Hopefully that won't get in your way. If you have questions, I'm hanging around in #drupal-docs a lot these days.
git GUI usage (smartgit)
Is smartgit better than TortoiseGit? I'm relatively new to Git and found TortoiseGit really nice and well documented. I have a couple of non-drupal projects managed with it.
Choose one package for cross-platform training
The reason smartgit was chosen as a tool to document (a long time ago) was just that it exists on all three OS platforms, so could be documented one way.
TortoiseGit is a perfectly fine package, but Windows only.
The reality is that everyone is perfectly welcome to learn whatever git tool works for them. And if they understand git at all, all of these tools will work fine.
Contrib or core patch workflow as non-maintainer using SmartGit
There's a work-in-progress documenting your workflow using SmartGit. http://drupal.org/node/1010448 It's nowhere near complete, but I wanted to get it out there for your review. I think we may want to continue exploring alternatives as my experience so far has been less than ideal.
Just to clarify..
I'm totally stoked if someone using each of Windows, Linux, and Mac wants to research which is the best Git GUI for their platform and translate http://drupal.org/node/1010448 into their client of choice. It would be wonderful to launch with something akin to http://drupal.org/handbook/cvs/clients which has instructions for just about every client under the sun.
However, if we're going to do that, we need volunteers to step up ASAP and help fill those gaps in. The team can't do it alone.
since I whined about the
since I whined about the linux / foss angle, seems only right I, um, "do" this. will have a screencast and tutorial for git cola (best GitGUI for linux I know of) this week,,, shooting for d7 launch or at least sandcamp
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mike stewart { twitter: @MediaDoneRight | IRC nick: mike stewart }
Sounds great! I'm still
Sounds great! I'm still trying to see if we have a recommended workflow that we're supposed to use while illustrating the tools. You can see what I did in the SmartGit example, adapted from Randy's work. The example was confusing to me, maybe just because I have zero experience with it.
Don't let that hold you back, especially if you have a notion of how it should be. I'll post here if I get something definitive.
@eliza411 - nearly done with
@eliza411 - nearly done with my documentation for Git-Cola - and will shortly thereafter have a screencast too... hope to do by tomorrow. however, kinda held up at moment, I commented on: http://drupal.org/node/1010448#comment-3902294
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mike stewart { twitter: @MediaDoneRight | IRC nick: mike stewart }