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Re: Xdelta and CVS


From: Stephen Rasku
Subject: Re: Xdelta and CVS
Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2001 08:23:24 -0700 (PDT)

Greg Woods wrote:
>
>[ On Thursday, April 19, 2001 at 15:47:14 (-0500), David H. Thornley 
wrote: ]
>
>> Um, what's so sacred about RCS file format?  I realize that file
>> formats are to be changed only with caution, but since the entire
>> functionality is internalized into CVS (as of 1.10, I believe)
>> there is no reason why it cannot be changed for a good purpose.
>
>Those two points are totally orthogonal.
>
>Some people have even argued that the CVS repository format is
>irrelevant and all that matters is the network protocol...

I would agree with this.

>The RCS format is important because it makes it possible to retrieve the
>contents of the repository with third-party tools (eg. RCS itself).  RCS
>file format is well documented and tools for handling it are widely
>implemented, the canonical definition being publicly and freely 
available.

This is beneficial but not necessary in my opinion.

>
>The RCS format is also important because it guarantees forward and
>backward and sideways compatibility and interoperability with other
>releases and variants of CVS.  One can rewrite CVS from scratch and
>still *interoperate* with the exact same repository.

This is irrelevant.  I converted an SCCS repository to a CVS repository 
and RCS compatibility was (obviously) not required to do this.  It 
wouldn't matter what file format CVS stored its files in if I have a tool 
to convert from my existing source control file format.  

>Finally the RCS format is important because it means that many RCS users
>can migrate to using CVS without losing version history or trying to
>figure out how to convert it to some new format.

As stated above, this is a red herring.  I was able to convert from SCCS 
to CVS without losing version history.


-- 
Stephen Rasku                   E-mail: address@hidden
Senior Software Engineer        Web:    http://www.pop-star.net/
TGI Technologies




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