[xmonad] New DarcsWatch features

[Joachim Breitner]

Hi,

if you follow planet.haskell.org you’ll have read that I attended the
Darcs hacking sprint in Vienna. Together with the Darcs guys I
integrated DarcsWatch better into their patch submission and review
process. Let me outline it quickly
 * Darcs patches are sent to patches at darcs.net.
 * A new ticket (of type patch, not issue) is automatically created in
   their roundup instance.
 * The patch, with a reference to the ticket number, is sent by roundup
   to the darcs-users mailing list.
 * DarcsWatch is subscribed to that list and notices this mail as usual.
 * DarcsWatch detects the roundup patch tracker URL in the mail and 
   remembers it.
 * It also sets a special "darcswatchurl" property of the roundup 
   ticket (via e-Mail), to add a link to DarcsWatch on the roundup
   ticket view.
 * When the patch is eventually applied, DarcsWatch sends a mail to the 
   roundup ticket, setting its state to "applied". A message about this 
   is sent to the darcs-user list.

This is not directly applicable to xmonad, of course. But due to the
re-organization of the DarcsWatch code some new possibilities arise:

 1. DarcsWatch could send bundle-applied-mails to the mailing list.
Since patch submissions are on the list, this would we useful for people
just following development. Also the submitter is likely happy to hear
that his patch has been applied, without checking the repository or
DarcsWatch. OTOH it would slightly increase the noise level on the list.

 2. Users can subscribe to bundle-applied-mails about their own patches.
It would be relatively easy to implement that I can give DarcsWatch a
list of e-Mail-Adresses that want “Your bundle α was applied to
repository β” notifications. This would be independent of xmonad, of
course. Is anyone interested? I’d start with manually configuring the
list with addresses people tell me about, and maybe later add an
automatic subscription feature, if there is demand.

3. DarcsWatch could be integrated closer in the xmonad bug tracker.
Of course, code.google.com will not be as easily hackable as a
self-hosted roundup instance, but maybe some interaction is possible. Is
there an API for that? Some features that are desirable are:
 * DarcsWatch should somehow be aware of patches submitted via
code.google.com that were not sent to the mailing list.
 * DarcsWatch could be able to amend the ticket with the patch
application status.
 * DarcsWatch could close tickets if a patch bundle is applied – but
what if the patch does not work, if there are multiple patches etc.? The
Darcs team has clearer semantics there, as patches and issues are
tracked separately on roundup (but can refer to each other).

Especially item 3 is meant to be a discussion starter :-)

Greetings,
Joachim

-- 
Joachim "nomeata" Breitner
  mail: mail at joachim-breitner.de | ICQ# 74513189 | GPG-Key: 4743206C
  JID: nomeata at joachim-breitner.de | http://www.joachim-breitner.de/
  Debian Developer: nomeata at debian.org
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 198 bytes
Desc: Dies ist ein digital signierter Nachrichtenteil
Url : http://www.haskell.org/pipermail/xmonad/attachments/20091126/e454685b/attachment.bin