[ncc-services-wg] Pre-PDP discussion: "All published documents and PDPs are maintained with git"

On Fri, Mar 15, 2013 at 10:46 PM, Jim Reid <jim at rfc1035.com> wrote:

> First, git may well be the flavour-of-the-month as a version control repository/system today. It won't be in the future. What happens then?

What always happens: We migrate. I strongly disagree with your
assessment that it's "of the month", though. Most if not all major
FLOSS projects (which allow GPL software) use git or are migrating to
it. Even Microsoft is starting to support it. git will not go away for
a long time. And if it does, it will have provided real benefit to
everyone within RIPE.


> Next, this could force EVERYONE to use some git client. The NCC's supposed to be neutral. It should not get into the game of requiring the community to use specific tools or software.

No, it would not. The whois data is maintained within a SQL DB. I
don't need SQL to access whois information. Just because data is
stored in a specific canonical place does not mean it's the only
place.

Point in case: Do you know what RIPE NCC's canonical policy document
storage is? Do you care as long as you get to access the files via
www, ftp, etc?


> Just because some people have a git-shaped hammer doesn't mean every problem in the area of version control and document management has to be made to look like a git-shaped nail.

While that statement is true in and as of itself, I fail to see how it
relates to the discussion at hand.


> You also appear to be defining outcomes before the requirements are agreed. Or even clear. Let's first understand what problem needs solved and then decide what's the best way to solve them.

That's what we are doing. To arrive at that, we need something to base
our discussion on. If I hadn't proposed the above, we would not be
having this conversation.



Richard