[darcs-users] Command renamings and hide/show

Bennett Todd bet at rahul.net
Thu May 13 12:41:58 UTC 2004


2004-05-13T12:02:38 Marnix Klooster:
> Hello all,

Hello. I'm a complete newcomer to darcs, just subscribed, still
working my way through reading the manual, while trying to bootstrap
up the prereqs.

> * Rename 'repository' to 'branch' throughout.  This makes the
>   terminology more consistent with CVS and other systems.  Then
>   explain that a darcs "distributed repository" is simply a collection
>   of branches that know of each other.

Tough call. The thing about darcs is that it takes two abstractions
that are violently separate in CVS and everything that tastes like
it, namely repositories and branches, and collapses 'em. darcs'
"every working dir is a repo" is a pretty excitingly new idea.

Perhaps emphasizing that branches aren't a strongly distinct concept
in darcs, that a branch is just a separate working dir (==repo) with
some distinct work recorded in it, would be a helpful thing to add
to the docs.

I'd argue against systematically renaming repository to branch,
because folks with CVS experience think of branches as being more
complex, tricky things. Repositories are simpler. Everybody who's
ever used anything in this space has had to work with a repository
(and with most tools it's interestingly much tricker than with
darcs). Lots and lots of people have managed to avoid figuring out
branches.

> * Make the default to be as verbose as possible, and offer -q /
>   --quiet (this is the CVS style).  This helps beginners.
>   (Currently it's the other way around.)

Tentatively agreed, as long as --quiet is so completely uniform that
more experienced users can stuff "ALL quiet" in their
prefs/defaults.

> This gives four possible combinations:
> 
>  * visible recorded: everything that is stored in the repository, and
>                      is visible in the working directory.
>    
>  * visible unrecorded: diff between working directory and the 'visible
>                        recorded' patches

aka whatsnew? Or is this a different concept?

-Bennett
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