Proposal: create an experimental dir

[brettmc]

Idea from @tidal in #498 (comment)

One thing thing I found in the repos of other SIGs is, that they often have a experimental directory besides the src one. Maybe we can adport this, so it would be easier to collaborate on certain things, and once everybody is happy, we move it to source?
One reason is, that I find it way easier to review code locally, than in github's PR GUI (There are tools to help with this, but they don't work with the restrictions of the OTEL repos afaik)

To consider:

• namespace
• autoloader (dev only?)
• should not be published to packagist?

[tidal]

• namespace

Yes!
If it's a special one (eg. OpenTelemetry/Experimental) it could also host modified version of existing files.

• autoloader (dev only?)

Yes!

• should not be published to packagist?

Yes!

[Grunet]

Just for reference I think this search captures the other repos that do something like this (or at least some of them perhaps)

[tidal]

@Grunet
Thank you, I did not know that such a great name like "grep.app" exists (no sarcasm, I love it!).
The features are cool too, btw.

[brettmc]

Another thought - having experimental is good for trying things out, but it would also be useful to use it as a way to collaborate or have others try out prototype code. Having to submit a PR and merge to main is too much friction for collaboration.

[tidal]

@brettmc
We could use the clones in https://github.com/otel-php for people to collaborate in the future.
I actually created them just to test the sub-splits, but we could keep them to have an easier way to collaborate.
I guess we can add some automation as well, to make this create less friction.

[bobstrecansky]

It appears you've added this in #498, so I'm going to go ahead and close this issue for now.