Change default branch to develop for Riot Web repos

[jryans]

After talking with @lampholder about process on GitHub, we felt it would simplify things if we change the "default branch" on Riot Web repos from master to develop. This should improve several things:

• New contributors will check out repos on the correct branch by default
• Issues should auto-close correctly when merged to develop
• PRs will target the correct branch by default

The master branch still exists for those who want the stable version, but arguably most of those people want a released artifact instead anyway.

(As an aside, Riot iOS and Android teams already have default branch set to develop.) Any opinions on this?

[turt2live]

My general thoughts are that it sounds like a good thing to do but we really shouldn't do it quietly.

People have build scripts for Riot and I don't think we should break those intentionally, even if they are custom, non-standard, monstrosities that people put together.

[jryans]

My general thoughts are that it sounds like a good thing to do but we really shouldn't do it quietly.

People have build scripts for Riot and I don't think we should break those intentionally, even if they are custom, non-standard, monstrosities that people put together.

Right, that's a good point. What's a good way to broadcast the intent to change to such people? Announcing it in #riot-dev?

[turt2live]

Yea, probably an at-room notification and general noise for a day or so before doing it.

[jryans]

We'll also need to review our build, release, etc. scripts to ensure they all checkout a specific branch instead of relying on the default.

[uhoreg]

Back in the days before GitHub, people used to do development on the master branch. Since git is a development tool, it's always seemed weird to me to have development done on a not-default branch. I don't know why things changed when GitHub showed up, but +1 to going back to having development on the default branch, like we had in the good old days.

Now get off my lawn!
</curmudgeon>

[jryans]

I reviewed our own build, release, etc. scripts, and we appear to correctly choose a branch explicitly in all of them.

The next step is to communicate our intent to the community.

[jryans]

I have posted in #riot-dev:matrix.org with our intent to change.

[jryans]

The default branch settings have been changed.