Re: outsider's perspective

[Phil R Lawrence]

On Tue, 27 May 2003 11:39:22 -0700
Steve deRosier <address@hidden> wrote:

> That's it.  Don't think too hard on it.  As is typical with Linux and 
> other UNIX systems, CVS is a simple tool meant to do one simple job and 
> nothing else.  CVS versions files.  If you want to do more, add more 
> tools into the mix

You know, that does paint a rosier, and fairer picture.  I believe in the 
usefulness of using the pipe on the command line, and this does seem analogous. 
 Thanks!

As for the perl wrappers, yeah, I had gone as far in my thinking as you did in 
your note.  The hangups start when considering how to determine at checkin time 
which of the n hard links will become a file actually stored in CVS, and how to 
track the other hard links to be sure they are updated upon checkout.

I suppose that's doable also, but...  how much hacking and wrapping is too 
much?  I guess that's another tradeoff.  Piping "this to that to the other" on 
my own personal command line is one thing, but this will be an scm system to be 
used by one and all.  Some in my department are known to be set in their ways, 
and complexity is anathema.  When I began looking into CVS, the complexity of 
the tagging/branching syntax was almost enough to make it a non-contendor for 
our users.

I'll keep looking for now.  Thanks again for your fair(er) thoughts on CVS.

Phil