[darcs-users] a couple of features (logs & managing patches)

[Andrew Pimlott]

On Thu, Aug 19, 2004 at 07:00:03AM -0400, David Roundy wrote:
> The 'make log' concept has been discussed, but I don't think everyone was
> entirely satisfied with the outcome.  So if relevant parties could comment
> on my suggestion below, that would be great.

Well, I half expected you to suggest something involving rerecord.  (In
fact, that's the reason I didn't respond myself!)  If we had the feature
where you could edit the patch name/description when rerecording, you
could just record when you think of something to put in the "log file",
maybe give the patch a name starting with "working" to remind yourself
it's not done, rerecord when you want to add to the "log file", etc.
It's up to you whether to put any actual changes in the patch, but if
you did, it would help you organize your in-progress work when you find
yourself making independent changes in the same tree.  In this sense, it
is even more powerful than just log files.

I'm not sure rerecord is really up to this usage, not having used it
much myself yet.  One issue is that you can't remove a hunk from patch
when rerecording it (without actually reverting it in your working
copy), so your tentative decisions would have perhaps too much finality.

(BTW, I noticed that if you change a line, record, change the same line,
and rerecord again, the final rerecorded patch still has just one hunk,
instead of two with the subsequent changes.  Very nice!)

All this notwithstanding, your idea sounds entirely usable, and you
could easily keep multiple log files and pass the relevant one to
record.  Plus, the changes sound like improvements in their own right.

Andrew