Re: editing log message

[Mike Maxwell]

Bob Proulx wrote:
> address@hidden wrote:
> > I've been using RCS for ages now, but I'm having trouble editing the log
> > message on one system.
>
> That implies that it works differently on other systems?  I would
> expect it to work the same on all systems.

That was caused by a bad 'stty' setting, as you guessed, since fixed.

> > If I log into this computer (a Linux system running RCS v5.7), and
> > check in a file, it of course gives me the usual '> ' prompt to type
> > in my log message.
>
> Yes.  The read-one-line-at-a-time input method of rcs that we all know
> and don't like very well today.

Bill Poser and I looked at the source code, and it appears it wouldn't 
be too hard to plug in a call to the readline library (libreadline) in a 
loop, so that the loop exits when the user types a line consisting of 
just a period.

> I hate to suggest this on the help-rcs list but I think it is true so
> I will say that most people today use a more modern version control
> system than rcs.  Today I dare say that rcs exists to support the
> legacy use of it but it is not recommended for new instances.  Today
> you would be better off using Git or Subversion or one of the others.
> It is because these new systems have come into being that rcs is
> maintained only enough to keep it going but not to add new features to
> it.  I think the last rcs change was in 1996.  I recommend that you
> consider using a more modern system such as Git if you have the choice
> to do so.

I have the choice, but my fingers know rcs :-).  I use it both on Linux 
and Windows (the latter using the very nice CS-RCS front end).  Also, 
some of these other systems apparently don't play well with Windows (the 
wikipedia article on 'git' lists that as a drawback).

If I did go with another version control system, I'm not sure which one 
it would be.  I presume cvs is still a contender, and offers advantages 
over RCS when multiple users want to modify the same file (although I 
haven't wrapped my mind around how that works--most of my work up until 
this point has been single-user modifications, namely my own).

Another criterion I would have for a replacement version control system 
is that it treat XML well.  I'm not sure what I mean by that, since XML 
files are in "just" plain text files; but diffing XML files with the 
traditional diff program often seems unenlightening.  I believe there 
are XML diff programs that do a better job, although I suppose that's 
not a topic for this group.

> You could create a script of the above to automate this.  This
> following is an example that might give you some ideas.
        
I might try that.  Alternatively, if Bill and I were able to modify rcs 
so it used the readline library, would it be of general enough interest 
to get into a new version of rcs?
--
        Mike Maxwell
        address@hidden
        "Theorists...have merely to lock themselves in a room
        with a blackboard and coffee maker to conduct their business."
        --Bruce A. Schumm, Deep Down Things