[darcs-users] Looks nice. Noob questions.

[David Roundy]

On Sat, Jan 17, 2004 at 08:29:12PM -0500, Art Griesser wrote:
> > Well, I very rarely want to use whatsnew --summary... 
> 
> Hmm. If you don't mind my curiosity, what do your usage patterns look
> like?  I naively expected everybody did this:
> 
> 0. The repository is in synch with the working directory.
> 1. I make changes to the working directory.
> 2. I find the differences between the repo and work dir (whatsnew
> 3. I schedule changes to the repo (requiring explit scheduling avoids
> commiting changes accidentally made to the work dir)

I'm not clear as to what you mean by "schedule changes"... that is, how
step three is distinct from step four.

> 4. I commit the scheduled changes
> 5. Make any necessary changes to work dir (if necessary recreate it) so
> that I am now back in state 0.

My normal sequence is something like

0. The repository is in synch with the working directory.
1. I make changes to the working directory.
2. I use whatsnew to see what changes I've made (especially if some time
   has passed and I've forgotten what changes I made).
3. When I've decided that some set of my changes are good (and complete), I
   record them.

The only time I do your 5. is when I've made temporary changes I don't want
to keep (such as adding debug printfs), in which case I'll generally use a
darcs revert to undo them.

> > You can also schedule the removal of files using "darcs remove", which
> > restores the symmetry.  Or you can use the "--look-for-adds" flag to
> > automatically look for additions, which restores the symmetry.
> 
> Unless "darcs record --help" is mistaken, there is no flag to avoid
> automatic removals. This seems to make the situation asymetric, despite
> the "--look-for-adds" flag (which I admit overlooked).

What I mean is that if you use --look-for-adds, then the situation is
symmetric.  But really, the fact is that additions and removals are *not*
symmetric.  In the case of a removal, darcs knows that it should be keeping
track of changes to that file (because you already told it to), while in
the case of a new file that shows up in the working directory, there is no
way to know if you want it in the repo.

> Would it help the development and spread of Darcs to have a Wiki? If so,
> I would be willing to host one. Gratis, of course.

I do think it would be a good idea.  I've been thinking of putting one on
the abridgegame.org site, but I think I'm probably going to be switching
servers some time soon, so that's been put off until I've figured out what
I'm going to do with my server.
-- 
David Roundy
http://civet.berkeley.edu/droundy/