[darcs-users] Naming consistency between darcs and other DVCSs

[Dan Pascu]

On 15 Jul 2009, at 21:32, Ashley Moran wrote:

>
> On 15 Jul 2009, at 15:07, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
>
>> "rollback" has a precise meaning in database theory.  It means to
>> undo the last transaction (possibly incomplete) in the history.  IMO
>> Mercurial uses this correctly, Darcs does not.
>
>
> Maybe `darcs revert` should really be called `darcs rollback` then?


Renaming one existing command into another existing command would be a  
major confusion. Let's not do that. These commands are already etched  
into the darcs user's mind. Unless there is a real problem with a  
command I see no reason to start replacing and swapping them like  
there's no tomorrow, just because others use something else. If it  
ain't broke don't fix it.

While I understand Stephen's argument about the analogy with rollback  
from the database terminology, I'm not bothered by the fact that  
darcs' rollback goes deeper than the last transaction. Darcs' rollback  
can rollback any patch that is specified which makes it more useful  
IMO, without bringing any confusion to the notion. I expect darcs  
rollback without any arguments to ask me what to rollback (or just  
rollback the last patch), but when I say darcs rollback --patch  
"foobar", I do not see how one can get confused about what it means.

While a similarity with something like the database terminology could  
be useful to some degree, I do not expect that if we use similar terms  
they also behave exactly the same since the database field and the VCS  
field are not the same thing.

--
Dan