but what color for the bikeshed's _lean-to_? (was Re: [Monotone-devel] renaming monotone executable (again))

[Nathaniel Smith]

On Thu, Mar 02, 2006 at 06:03:15PM +0800, Matt Johnston wrote:
> It seems awkward that a program ('mtn') would produce an
> output directory that conflicts with itself ('MTN') on
> case-insensitive filesystems. I think the aesthetic
> inconsistency of staying with 'MT' (or something else) would
> be the lesser evil compared with having conflicting names.
> '.MTN' is an alternative, though personally I think I prefer
> the obvious nature of a visible filename.

Right, this has come up in discussion on IRC the last few days...
having thought about it more, it seems like as a general principle, we
should make sure to name the bookkeeping directory something that
no-one would ever otherwise want to name a file.  Otherwise, we are
just putting a stupid and pointless limit on how monotone can be used,
since the bookkeeping directory's name cannot be used for a versioned
file.

(For the rest of the email, I'm going to say "mtn" as the short form,
just because I am much to lazy to "mtn or whatever we settle on" in
every sentence.)

The other exciting thing is that in my first email, I forgot about the
config directory, ~/.monotone.  Presumably this name should also match
the name of the executable.  (And monotonerc -> mtnrc?  Oh well,
whatever, not relevant to this email.)

So, the reason this is exciting is, if we follow both of these, then
for the bookkeeping dir:
  -- MTN is out, because, duh, there is a reason someone might have
     some file somewhere called "mtn"
  -- .mtn is out, because, duh, ~/.mtn is another file that one might
     want to create with this name.  (In particular, these can't
     match, or you can't store your home directory in monotone!)

So the possibilities that come to my mind are:
  -- Use .mtn for the bookkeeping dir, and keep .monotone as the
     config dir.  This seems sort of weird, though I guess it's what
     both bzr-ng and svn do.  I also share Matt's mild preference for
     not using a hidden dir, though I welcome more bikesheds full of
     opinions on this matter as well.  (Several people have already
     suggested using a dotfile upthread, and I observe that all of
     svn, git, hg, bzr have gone with hidden dirs.)
  -- Use _MTN or _mtn for the bookkeeping dir.  This remains visible,
     while avoiding name conflicts with mtn itself.  Precedence:
     _darcs, and svn with SVN_ASP_DOT_NET_HACK (see
     http://subversion.tigris.org/faq.html#vs-asp-net).

-- 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