Re: Feature request/ideas

[Frank Hemer]

On Saturday 05 March 2005 00:15, Derek Price wrote:
> Derek Price wrote:
> > Mark D. Baushke wrote:
> > | Therefore, I suppose that there could be a need for .origin to be
> > | the first revision on TRUNK
> >
> > This would seldom mean much across multiple files, so I still think
> > .origin should not be used.  The case Frank cited, where he is
> > basically trying to diff against an import (thought not generated
> > using the import command), is the only one where all the .origin
> > revisions will be related in a sensible way, and even then only if no
> > files have been added or removed on the trunk.  Once files have been
> > added or removed, you degenerate to the case where the .origin
> > revisions (or even 1.1 revisions) of these files could have been added
> > at different times and offering to calculate .origin is misleading at
> > best.
> >
> > The only consistent way to do this is to tag everything after the
> > "import" and diff against that tag.  This tag couldn't even really be
> > automated, except in something like the import command, which imports
> > a set of files at once and tags the set.
> >
> > .origin makes no sense.
>
> And furthermore, in the use case Frank mentioned, the commitid should
> now fulfill the need .origin was serving.

As I stated before, there are certainly several ways to achieve this. But all 
of them require more interaction than typing a single expression. To compare 
against a commitid, you need to know the commitid, and it probably requires 
to run cvs log before. To tag an import or add requires doing it _always_. If 
a file is added on a branch, and its contents hasn't been hacked from scratch 
but taken from somewhere else, it might again become interesting what has 
been changed between add and the current head of the branch.

Granted, usage of .origin would seldom mean much across multiple files, but 
still it has a specific meaning on single files, or a selection of files. All 
in all, I think the convenience of a single expression more than balances the 
chance of being misleading. However it might make sense to only allow .origin 
to be used at maximum on a selection of files, and prevent usage on 
directories with no filenames specified.

A more detailed description of the current .origin behavior will follow with 
my next patch ... probably later today?

Regards
Frank
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