[Monotone-devel] Re: Branch naming conventions

[Nathan Myers]

On Sat, Dec 11, 2004 at 10:31:45PM +0000, Bruce Stephens wrote:
> Nathan Myers <address@hidden> writes:
> 
> > [domain-name order is] something that you and every other programmer
> > who might possibly use monotone is very, very used to.  The only
> > people who have ever even seen the other are Java coders.  
> 
> There are X.500 distinguished names.  

Very funny.  We all know no one has ever actually read X.500, so
there's no way you or anyone could know which endianness it suggests.

How about "Zebulon Carter, 411 Grant Rd., Eugene, Oregon, USA".
Awkward and unfamiliar, isn't it?  Of course, Russia does it the
other way, but I'm not sure what side that argues for.  UK e-mail
addresses used to be half-big-endian, back in the 80s -- user name on 
the left, but big-endian domain on the right; they seem to have given 
those up.  Likewise UUCP paths, on both counts.

Incidentally, it was a big mistake in Java to use domain names at all,
just as it's an equally big mistake to use any trademarked name in a
C++ namespace name.  Software changes ownership frequently, domain
names moreso.  If there's something worse than having some defunct 
company's name plastered all over your source files (and your 
customers'), it _might_ be having it unalterably in the branch names 
of your SCM.  But I don't understand monotone well enough to know 
whether this could actually be a nuisance.

Nathan Myers
address@hidden