Re: [Monotone-devel] Re: [cdv-devel] more merging stuff (bit long...)

[Nathaniel Smith]

On Sat, Aug 06, 2005 at 09:31:06AM -0400, Kevin Smith wrote:
> I really look forward to hearing comments from some of the SCM experts. 
> Is there a reason you didn't post this to the revctrl list as well? 

Just that I don't want to embarrass myself and waste people's time if
this turns out to be broken :-).  Figured I'd get some peer review
first. 

> I would be interested to hear about the feasibility of other systems 
> adopting this user model, regardless of whether they store weaves, 
> deltas, or snapshots.

The model (and everything else in the email) doesn't really apply to
textual merging, which is what people usually focus on.  In fact, the
email isn't, by itself, useful for much of anything at all :-).  It
_can_ be used as a primitive for tree rearrangement merging (renames
and all that), and I'm working on an email proposing how to do that in
monotone... and perhaps the ideas can be generalized, that being the
point of working on toy problems.  We'll see :-).

(One horrible idea I had, suitable for scaring small children who are
interested in merge algorithms: since it seem like trees may actually
be _easier_ to merge than text, by passing to the representation
of nodes-and-pointers-to-parents and then applying a nice scalar merge
algorithm, why not apply the same trick to the linear ordering
structure that makes up text?  Model each line as a (text, pointer to
preceding line) pair, and merge on those.

The horrible thing about this is that it allows for arbitrary
_movement_ of text.  Fun!)

-- Nathaniel

-- 
When the flush of a new-born sun fell first on Eden's green and gold,
Our father Adam sat under the Tree and scratched with a stick in the mould;
And the first rude sketch that the world had seen was joy to his mighty heart,
Till the Devil whispered behind the leaves, "It's pretty, but is it Art?"
  -- The Conundrum of the Workshops, Rudyard Kipling