Making your first branch is way too hard

[Matthew Paul Thomas]

I have just spent two hours helping a new Ubuntu contributor get going with branches in Launchpad.

Difficult parts of the process included:

1. Getting an SSH key.

2. Finding the file to copy and paste to register the SSH key with Launchpad.

3. Figuring out that he needed to use "bzr launchpad-login".

4. Getting no positive output from bzr launchpad-login, just silence.

5. Understanding the difference between "bzr branch lp:foo" and "bzr branch lp:ubuntu/foo". (See <https://code.launchpad.net/~milo/jockey/bug923345/+merge/93490> for another example of this problem.)

6. Being confronted by "The authenticity of host 'bazaar.launchpad.net (ip address)' can't be established." -- "it scared the **** out of me" (bug 238869)

7. Understanding the difference between bzr commit and bzr push.

8. Getting the syntax of the URL for a pushed branch exactly right: -- lp:~my-exact-launchpad-id/exact-name-of-project/name-of-branch.

9. Finding the Launchpad page corresponding to the branch, to perform deletions or merge proposals.

#4 by itself is probably a one-line fix. But #1, #2, #3, #4, and even #5 look like they could be handled by a "bzr launchpad-setup" script, that would walk you through getting an SSH key if you don't already have one, publishing it to Launchpad if you haven't, asking whether you whether you want to get the code of a project or a package, and then asking you which project/package.