How to manage code for a new platform (OpenHarmony Next)?

[lazyingfei]

Hi All,

We want to bring tigervnc project to a new platform called OpenHarmony Next. We think it would be very useful on this new system.

This is a big project, and we want to do it the right way. We need your advice on how to manage our source code.
What is the best way to set up our work so we can share it back with you later?

We have a few ideas:
- Work in a separate copy: We could keep our code separate from the main project. This might be easier for us at the start, but maybe harder to share back later.
- Work in a special branch: We can make a copy (a fork) of your project and create a new branch just for OpenHarmony Next.

Your suggestion: Is there another way you think is better? We are open to your ideas.

Our main goal is to add our work back to the official project project if you think it is a good fit.
Any help or advice you can give us would be great.

Best

[Pierre Ossman]

On 22/08/2025 07:03, lazyingfei wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> We want to bring tigervnc project to a new platform called OpenHarmony
> Next. We think it would be very useful on this new system.
>

Glad to hear it. We're always happy to see more use of TigerVNC.

> This is a big project, and we want to do it the right way. We need your
> advice on how to manage our source code.
> What is the best way to set up our work so we can share it back with you
> later?
>
> We have a few ideas:
> - Work in a separate copy: We could keep our code separate from the main
> project. This might be easier for us at the start, but maybe harder to
> share back later.
> - Work in a special branch: We can make a copy (a fork) of your project and
> create a new branch just for OpenHarmony Next.
>
> Your suggestion: Is there another way you think is better? We are open to
> your ideas.

I'm not sure if I see much difference between the two in a git based
work flow?

What we need from you are pull requests with cleaned up commits once
each fix or feature is in a working state. You can also submit draft
pull requests if you want to share work that's in progress.

Aside from that, feel free to work in whatever way suits you. The big
thing to keep in mind is how you want to handle syncing back up with us
once your changes have been merged. Those changes will likely often
change a bit compared to your initial version. So if you've deployed
those changes internally first, then there might be some history
confusion once you merge the next TigerVNC version.

>
> Our main goal is to add our work back to the official project project if
> you think it is a good fit.
> Any help or advice you can give us would be great.
>

More contributors are always welcome.

My main advice would be to discuss things early and submit things often
and early. It keeps things more manageable for us, and we might request
you to adjust things to fit well with our goals. Much better you get
that feedback in the early stages rather than later.

Since OpenHarmony is quite different from what we normally do, you
probably need to be prepared that some things might be difficult for us
to take in. We'll need to see exactly what it is you need.

If that ends up being the case, there will be plenty of general fixes
and improvements that I'm sure we can still collaborate on.

Regards,
--
Pierre Ossman Software Development
Cendio AB https://cendio.com
Teknikringen 8 https://twitter.com/ThinLinc
583 30 Linköping https://facebook.com/ThinLinc
Phone: +46-13-214600

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