[darcs-users] unique features + exponential time issue

Stephen J. Turnbull stephen at xemacs.org
Sat Oct 27 00:18:47 UTC 2007


Petr Rockai writes:

 > Note that "the following" is clean-merged with diff3, so you actually
 > refuse to use most of the current version control systems?

OK, "refuse to use" is too strong, but clearly any version control
system that ignores changes in "nearby" context (for some non-zero
value of "nearby") is criminally negligent.  There's a reason why
patch has a fuzz option, rather than just ignoring fuzz.

It's not usually a problem in practice, because in fact such
independent changes in close proximity are fairly rare for social
reasons (with the exception of ChangeLogs, where such bogus conflicts
occur very often).  By the same token, I think a disproportionate
amount of grief would be saved if developers were signaled to look at
such near misses.  Air traffic control takes near misses very
seriously, I think we should too.


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