Adopt git-flow workflow for a stable master branch

[CiaranOMara]

I like Gadfly and enjoy working with it. Unfortunately, it is unstable and has failed me at times when I've needed it to work.

Have you seen the git-flow workflow? The workflow promotes an always stable always working master branch. In this workflow, all development happens on a dev branch and all pull requests of development or new features are to the dev branch. If there is an issue with the master branch, hotfixes are applied to directly to the master branch; then the master branch is merged back into dev. This pattern of merging means there is no technical debt/new feature to overcome when applying a quick fix.

I hope that you consider the git-flow workflow for this project. I think it will help with stability, allow fixes to be applied quickly, and free people to develop new features.

[bjarthur]

i've used git-flow before. it's nice as you say because you can apply hot fixes.

gadfly, and all other julia packages to my knowledge, use the workflow adopted by the core julia language, where there is no separate dev branch. there are many developers that contribute to multiple packages, and it would be too confusing i think unless we all switched en masse.

you might raise this idea on discourse.

thanks for the many issues you have submitted here, and please continue letting us know if you have further problems or suggestions.