[darcs-users] default boring list

[Zooko O'Whielacronx]

On 2004, Sep 10, , at 11:57, Juliusz Chroboczek wrote:

>> I suggest that darcs default to an empty boring list, instead of the
>> current ad-hoc list.
>
> Please don't.  One of the nice things about darcs is how easy it is to
> start using it; the automagic skipping of boring files helps a lot 
> there.

For what it's worth. I've never used this automagic-skipping feature 
yet.  I've converted dozens of projects (my own and others) into darcs 
and I have so far done every one by either (a) specifying individual 
files, (b) specifying safe globs like "*.c", or (c) getting a fresh 
clean export of the codebase to start from (so that every file under 
"." ought to be added).

> Have you ever had a false positive with the current list?

Yes, at least twice.

> How about we'll worry about it when (if) they become out of date?

It's not just out-of-date, it is also that different people have 
different ideas of what filename patterns ought to be boring.  David's 
idea and mine have already conflicted twice.

>> Much simpler just to let people maintain their own boring lists.
>
> There's nothing preventing a savvy user from maintaining his own list,
> is there?

I had no problem.  Fortunately I knew to edit _darcs/prefs/boring.  If 
I hadn't known where the configuration was that was forcing darcs to 
skip the file I was trying to add I would have been irritated.  
Especially since I was adding one specific file, like this:

MAIN draco:~/tmp/tmp$ darcs add .bash_stuff.ba.sh
Skipping boring file .bash_stuff.ba.sh
MAIN draco:~/tmp/tmp$

Regards,

Zooko