Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Premi ères impression s au sujet de arch (forgive me to post this in french)

[Gonzalo Higuera D'iaz]

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Hello,

I have used arch for the first time not long a go for a small
project. As it is still a new piece of software I would like you to
know my impressions in an effort to make it better.

- Configuration file naming:

   The "{arch}" directory and the files beginning with ",,", "++"
   and "=" are not too pretty and are not practical to use
   (specially for shell competion). Also, this syntax poses a
   problem with certain ftp servers, at least with proftpd and
   pureftp.

- Configuration file orgalization:

   "{arch}" can be found in the root directory, and in every
   subdirectory there are ".arch-ids". It would seem better to group
   everything in one and only directory (".arch" for example).

- Amount of configuration files:

   It seems to me that there is an enormous amount; I have not
   participated in the implementation of arch, so I cannot really
   judge all its needs at this level, but it seems to me that there
   might be redundance in the tree layout. More clearly:

      In the root of my project, in the "{arch}" directory, one can
      find the tree structure in a directory with the same name as
      the project; this same tree structure can also be found in a
      directory named "++pristrine-trees".

- Use of inodes:

   I have seen that in the configuration files you save the inodes
   of the files to be saved. This poses a delicate problem:

      I have a computer A with the "tla" binary and a laptop B
      without the "tla" binary.
         * in A I do a checkout and I make a tarball from what I
            recover.
         * I scp this tarball to B In B I unpack the file and work
         * on the project I repack and scp the result to A In A I
         * unpack and I try to commit, but it says there is a
            problem with the inodes.

   I find this very limiting and I unfortunately cannot see the
   interest in doing so.

- Separation by "--":

   In many parameters of the tree structure, one needs to separate
   them by "--"; I don't find this too effective or pretty, and I
   would find it mare useful to well separated parameters (for
   example different arguments at the command line level).

- The name of the creator in the root:

   To get the sources of the project at initialisation time, or to
   create the project for the first time, it is necessary to write
   $ID_OF_CREATOR-.... I don't find the presence of the id a good
   idea since during the project lifetime the ide of this person
   will stay the same even if the person leaves the project or if he
   hasn't been at the head of it.

PS. I have never tested subversion, so my views are limited to cvs.

--
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