Re: [PATCH 2/2] scalar: convert README.md into a technical design doc

[Derrick Stolee <derrickstolee@github.com>]

On 7/11/2022 7:05 PM, Victoria Dye wrote:
> Derrick Stolee wrote:
>> On 6/29/2022 12:58 PM, Victoria Dye via GitGitGadget wrote:
>>> From: Victoria Dye <vdye@github.com>

>> It can be helpful to include the details of what steps to take to compile and
>> test the 'scalar' executable. That documentation will then be updated when
>> Scalar moves out of contrib/.
>>
> 
> As part of the move out of 'contrib/', I was planning on having Scalar built
> and installed the same as any built-in (albeit in 'bin/' - like 'gitk',
> 'git-cvsserver', etc. - rather than 'libexec/git-core'). In that case, there
> won't be any special steps needed to build/install 'scalar', so any
> instructions here would be temporary. I could include those instructions in
> the meantime, but with Scalar incomplete, I'm not sure whether that would be
> valuable.

Ok, I think you don't need those extra steps if the plan is to compile and
test by default. I think we might want to consider the installation steps
and whether or not distributors will want to have an opt-in option for the
scalar binary at that point. Fine to leave that until later.

>> You mention "performant" which makes me think that performance tests are intended
>> to be part of this change. It makes me think it would be interesting to have our
>> existing performance tests create a mode where they compare a "vanilla" Git repo
>> to one registered with Scalar, but otherwise runs the same tests already in the
>> t/perf/ test scripts. This is a wide aside so feel free to ignore me.
>>
> 
> This is a really interesting idea! My original plan was to add some basic
> tests around the operations 'scalar' should (directly or indirectly) speed
> up. I think I'll still need to do that anyway (e.g., for things like 'scalar
> clone' vs 'git clone'), but I'll also try to find a (repeatable) way to
> compare standard repo vs. Scalar enlistment performance in the existing perf
> tests.

It's tricky since our performance tests don't clone across a network boundary,
but maybe we could create a new class of tests to operate against a Git server
specified by the tester. Definitely out of scope for this series.

Thanks,
-Stolee