Code Join

A CodeFork is easy, and happens the instant any individual programmer changes a line of code independent of any other copy of the source. Instead of focusing on this natural form of entropy, perhaps more concern should be aimed at its opposite, the unnatural process of two or more independent programmers doing a CodeJoin.

Excluding PairProgramming (and PairProgrammers who can't fork because they're joined at the hip), what are the elements of a successful CodeJoin? An unsuccessful CodeJoin? What attitudes or aptitudes are useful when faced with the prospect of combining the work of two independent parties? What tools are useful? And when is it wisest to avoid the merger?

Would the merging of RubyOnRails and Merb constitue a CodeJoin?

CategorySoftwarePolitics (sometimes)