[darcs-users] Random rant about --no-set-default

Juliusz Chroboczek Juliusz.Chroboczek at pps.jussieu.fr
Tue Jan 6 22:21:21 UTC 2009


> Wouldn't it be more sane to *never* touch the default repo by
> default, remove that --no-set-default option, and add instead the
> opposite (--set-default)? In other words, --no-set-default should
> be the default IMHO.

Some historical background.

Originally, Darcs' behaviour was sticky (--set-defaults).  In early 2004,
I submitted a patch to change that to non-sticky, which was rejected by
David, on the grounds that the sticky behaviour is better for beginners,
and easier to explain.  He suggested that I might implement optional
non-sticky behaviour, which I did for Darcs 0.9.23.

Since then, David has mentioned that he has changed his mind on the
subject -- the non-sticky behaviour has turned out to be more useful in
practice.  Hence, he no longer opposes making it the default.

I strongly support making the non-sticky behaviour the default.  I've been
putting ``ALL no-set-default'' in all of my defaults files for over four
years now.

                                        Juliusz


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