="#branching_commit">Merging Back
    to the Trunk</a> below.</li>
  </ul>

  <p>So, there are basically three methods of working:</p>

  <dl>
    <dt>Branch from a stable version and prepare all your changes in
    isolation</dt>

    <dd>Necessary if you need to make your change relative to a well tested
    release.</dd>

    <dt>Branch from the latest code but then prepare all your changes in
    isolation</dt>

    <dd>Necessary if you need a stable baseline for your <em>control</em>
    data.</dd>

  