[Monotone-devel] Re: Proposal for human readable revision IDs

[Bruce Stephens]

Chad Walstrom <address@hidden> writes:

[...]

> Practically speaking, I think the suggestion to add spacing every 5
> (common w/the crypto crowd) or 4/8 characters (more "natural" for
> representing hex) seems most reasonable and global.  I personally like
> 4 characters/space pattern.  Using a small group of characters creates
> a mnemonic device (memory aid) through rhythm, making it easier to
> recall.

That's bad because it makes cut and paste more awkward.  I don't know
about Windows, but almost all Unix applications select a "word" if you
double click, so provided the hash is suitably delimited (with
whitespace, or square brackets), then it's very easy to select.  So 4
characters, space separated, would be pretty horrible from that point
of view.  4 characters, underscore separated, would be much better.

[...]

> "monotone log" could also be altered to output selectors:
>
>     % monotone log PATH
>     -----------------------------------------------------------------
>     [Ancestor]
>     r:
>
>     [Current]
>     r:9bed b716 44a5 6862 640e 036e fc32 1fdf 7318 52be
>     a:address@hidden
>     d:2005-09-01T05:44:38
>     b:branch.name
>     t:tag1
>     t:tag2
>
>     [Added files]
>     FILE1 FILE2 FILE3
>
>     [ChangeLog]
>     Example changelog entry.
>     -----------------------------------------------------------------

OK, but why give hints, why not show a selector?  You might show the
above as

a:address@hidden/d:2005-09-01T05:44:38/b:branch.name/t:tag1

That's not so good for cut and paste (on Unix, anyway) since it's
multiple words.  But it's better than the hints.

> I'm not real fond of the "old_revision [SHA1]" output, since it can't
> immediately be used as a selector (via copy-and-paste operations).

It's just fine if a double click selects the hash.

[...]