[mythtv] SVN Stability Scorecard System

[Matt]

Hi Everyone,

   Just had a quick idea to run past you guys and see what you think.
I've always been using a version of CVS/SVN since after .14.  Most
times, I rarely have an issue when I update to the latest SVN version,
but other times it could be dangerous due to big re-writes, huge
changes, new features, or incomplete commits.  I try to negate the
majority of the risk by frequently reading everything that goes
through the commit archive (don't have time to also read dev list,
irc, etc).  I think more and more people are starting to use
development releases instead of stable releases, although I think that
people are happy with the new fixes branch as well.

Anyway, to the point... When big changes are implemented or are being
worked on in SVN a "scorecard" could be posted on the wiki that shows
how stable or safe it is to use SVN at that point.  Although I hate to
draw the comparison, it could be similiar to the "terror watch" system
or green through red... something to that effect.

Obviously, I don't think SVN should ever be deemed completely safe or
stable, only a stable release could get that classification.  However,
I think that when people are ready to try out an SVN update they might
benefit from knowing if it's a high risk to do it at this point and
maybe they should wait a week.  I think some examples in the
past/present that might show up as a higher risk level would be the
live TV rewrite breaking live TV, redesign of mythweb, storage groups,
etc.  For exmaple, when storage groups first was committed, only a
couple of developers had tested it on their environment and it's a
fairly large difference than what has happened before.  However, after
3-4 weeks of it being committed, there were hardly any bugs reported
so it seems like the risk has been minimal.  Also, I know xris has
been working hard redoing mythweb and maybe it'll be best to wait for
him to commit many more changes before anyone tries to run the latest
version of mythweb in SVN.

When a developer knows that they are going to be committing some
things that may break existing functionality or may be making dozens
of commits over a period of time or may be commiting new, untested
functionality then they could report on the scorecard how much risk
they think upgrading to current SVN would be.

Just a thought... if someone likes it, maybe it'll become a practice
on the wiki.  Either way, keep up the good work devs!

Thanks!
Matt