GitHead questions from the uninitiated

[Colin Law]

On 3 December 2014 at 01:58, Alan Milewczyk <alan at soulman1949.com> wrote:
> On 03/12/2014 01:23, Jeremy Nicoll - ml get_iplayer wrote:
>>
>> Alan Milewczyk <alan at soulman1949.com> wrote:
>>
>>> In the last week or so, I've been patching get_iplayer using GitHeadWin
>>> to
>>> make sure I'm using the latest version.
>>
>> That's not necessarily very sensible.
>
> Can't do right for doing wrong.
>>
>> If you look through the commits log
>> (as other people have suggested) you'll quite often see instances of some
>> change being made and in the next few days more work being done in the
>> same
>> area of the code when it's discovered that the first chunk of work didn't
>> take everything necessary into account.  If you patch at every opportunity
>> you're as likely to give yourself problems as you are to get better code.
>>
>> It's probably a better idea to read the commits log and the descriptions
>> of
>> what's being changed, and every so often, when you think they may
>> represent
>> a moderately stable stage in development,
>
> How would I know?
>>
>>   grab the latest version. Or do
>> what almost every user does, wait until DP announces a new /stable/
>> version
>> here, and grab that.
>>
>> Or, only grab a newer version from git if you've read here that some
>> just-discovered problem - which you're experiencing - has just been fixed
>> in
>> git.
>>
> Think I'll invest in a crystal ball! ;-)

For HEAD updates I use the 'if it works for me stick with what I have
got' approach.  I update when there is a formal release and just pick
up the head if I have a problem and there are suggestions that it has
been addressed in git.

Colin