Re: [Monotone-devel] Re: user-friendly hash formats, redux

[Nathaniel Smith]

On Tue, Dec 07, 2004 at 07:25:54AM -0800, Logan Sackette wrote:
> I should have stated earlier that I don't know
> anything about the implementation of a VC system.  I
> am not saying this will be easy, but I think we ought
> to focus on ease of use and then ease of
> implementation.  Who benefits from having something
> that is easy to implement but difficult to use?  

Other people have replied talking about some of the things that make
this difficult to achieve; I'd just like to respond a bit more to this
comment.

The thing is, in a lot of cases, the answer to your question is "the
users".  Partly through secondary effects -- if an implementation is
simple and clean, then that frees development time to spend on other
things; more importantly, it makes all later development easier,
faster, and less buggy, because of reduced coupling.  This is a
little abstract though... the really big issue in the version
identifier debate, is that it's not clear that it's _possible_ to
implement a system like you describe, and have it be robust.
And when users _certainly_ suffer from _poor_ implementations.  IMO a
system that is unpredictable and sometimes outright broken is the most
difficult to use of all...

-- Nathaniel

-- 
"But suppose I am not willing to claim that.  For in fact pianos
are heavy, and very few persons can carry a piano all by themselves."