Re: Merge mode (Was Classifying files as binary or text)

On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 08:25, David Glasser <glasser_at_davidglasser.net> wrote:
> I'm not a MIME expert, but isn't there a thing where you can add
> key/value pairs after a MIME type which customize its meaning? Maybe
> that could be used for this?

Please, no.

Isn't the fact that charset is munged into svn:mime-type already
sufficiently ugly? Placing these two independent values into the same
property together is a hindrance to scriptability. It clashed badly
with autoprops syntax for *years* (fixed in 1.7, I hear).You're
advocating more of the same?

Maybe it's just me, but I find it easier to work with systems that:
- separate concerns
- keep their features orthogonal
- keep atomic values atomic, rather than munging them together into
arbitrary blobs
(In this, I guess I'm obeying a kind of "normal form").

After many years of using Subversion, I've come to the conclusion that
svn:mime-type is best understood as a way to keep Apache happy and
able to support read-only repository browsing. The fact that this
property is also used to determine ability to merge, diff, and blame
is an unfortunate wart.

// Ben

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Received on 2009-11-18 09:47:58 CET