Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Re: taglines vs explicit

[Miles Bader]

On Sun, Oct 05, 2003 at 11:02:46AM -0700, Davide Libenzi wrote:
> I heard really many issues with existing SCM in the past, but not a single
> one was complaining about the need of manually doing add/move/remove to
> manipulate the repository.  Not a single one.

Complaints about `add' are pretty common with CVS (`move' not so, because CVS
doesn't support it :-).  The conversation often goes like this:

  `Hey your new changes don't even compile!'

  `What?!? I tested them massively... hold on ... grumble ...mumble ...
   Oh.  (pause)
   Um, please do a cvs update, and try again.'

> The tagging concept should/must be completely *transparent* to the
> user, to the point that he does not even know of their existance.

And yet you go on to suggest a method that's far from transparent.
Taglines are if anything _more_ transparent than what you suggest.

[But no mechanism can ever be really transparent, except perhaps for `names'
with _every_ file considered as source (backups, objects, you name it)]

> SCM *must* be able to do the right thing w/out the user having to even
> think about tagging and whatever a tag is.

Why?  There's no `must.'  Taglines are not perfect, but it's a _tradeoff_.
They give recognizable advantages over `traditional' mechanisms, but they
introduce a new concept (a rather simple new concept, but none-the-less).
The state of the art _does_ occasionally advance, you know, and sometimes
it's even a good thing.

For a big project like linux, learning this new concept is very, _very_
small price to pay.

I realize you hate the idea of `metadata' polluting your files.  But you
know, if Linus were to add taglines to the kernel, I'll bet that after the
initial massive shock to your sense of cleanliness, you wouldn't even notice
them -- they're simply not very intrusive in reality.  [I can say this
because I've actually used them, on a multi-developer project, where most
people are entirely clueless about arch.]

-Miles
-- 
We live, as we dream -- alone....