Re: [Monotone-devel] Re: new feature: 'mtn pluck'

[Nathaniel Smith]

On Thu, Jul 06, 2006 at 12:29:14PM -0700, Graydon Hoare wrote:
> I have a minor nit with the name: I think I really prefer the word 
> "apply" for this operation. Does anyone else have a preference?
> 
> I know I suggested "pluck" too, but on reflection I think it's a bit 
> zany sounding, and think I'd prefer some dry, stodgy term.

I agree -- I even agree that the last time we had this argument (with
"revision" vs. "rung", I think), I was wrong :-).

But, my problem with all the dry, stodgy terms I could think of is
that they are misleading.  In particular, "apply" is a word that
90% of the time is follwed by "a patch".  But this command has nothing
to do with patches.  I want to avoid the situation where someone new
to monotone and version control is told "apply this patch", and goes
"hmm, how do I do that?  mtn --help... ah-hah!  mtn apply!".  (This
applies to a number of the other suggestions, too.)

I guess "cherrypick" is a bit stody too (at least, it's
well-established), but it's just as uninterpretable as "pluck" to
people who haven't followed the VCS wars, and has all sorts of
different associations for people who have followed the VCS wars.

So, lacking any dry, stody term that didn't seem likely to actively
confuse people, I went with the term that no-one has ever heard of, so
at least it has a chance to grow into its own term-of-art :-).

"transplant", which I think you suggested too, also seemed like a
reasonable choice; I just have a bias towards
monosyllabic/monomorphemic germanic words.  Maybe it's less zany,
though, dunno.

-- Nathaniel

-- 
Damn the Solar System.  Bad light; planets too distant; pestered with
comets; feeble contrivance; could make a better one myself.
  -- Lord Jeffrey