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

[Chad Walstrom]

Andy Jones <address@hidden>  wrote:
> I've only been using Monotone for a few weeks, and then only to
> evaluate it, but already I've experienced +dozens+ of instances of
> reading a revision ID out ... to myself.  I +never+ copy and paste.

I can only postulate what type of environment you're working in, since
I can't grab the info from your email (gmail account).  If you're
working, for instance, in a console or terminal-based session and do
not have access to a mouse, consider using the application screen(1).
You can perform a copy-and-paste operation using a few meta-key
combinations and key navigation similar to vi.

    1. replace shell with screen instance with "exec screen" 
    2. Press ^A^c to create a new
    3. Run a monotone command to generate output "monotone status"
    4. Press ^A^[ to drop into copy-and-paste mode
    5. Use h, j, k, l to navigate up and down terminal window
    6. Hit [SPACE] to make begin mark
    7. Hit [SPACE] to make end mark
    8. Press ^Ap to flip to previous screen
    9. Enter an editor for your notes "vi notes.txt"
    10. Press "i" to enter edit mode in vi
    11. Press ^A] to paste contents of screen clipboard into current
        screen, and thus into the vi buffer.
    12. Save document.
    13. Flip over to the next screen to perform work again: ^An

> For example, I often make notes about the revision history, and that
> involves writing down at least part of the ID; I have to say the
> thing over to myself just so I can write it down right.
> 
> I appreciate that many people copy and paste - all that means is
> that we should use underscores to seperate the digit groups.

Dashes, underscores, and yes even spaces would all work well.  I say
spaces because even in a shell environment, one can prime the
command-line with a single or double quote before the copy-and-paste
operation.

    % monotone COMMAND 'PASTE_OPERATION'[ENTER]

In any case, spaces doen't make it any easier compared to dashes or
underscores (I'd be partial to dashes, given the choice).  It really
is just a visual representation that might make patterns easier to
recognize, but beyond that functionality, I don't see any reason for
it.

-- 
Chad Walstrom <address@hidden>           http://www.wookimus.net/
           assert(expired(knowledge)); /* core dump */