Re: [DESIGN] Aliases? (Was: RE: Re: I, too, miss tags.)

On Sunday 26 February 2006 21:45, you wrote:

> This thread seems to have run its course and died off further-down,

I think we are moving to discussions how labels can be easily implemented.

> but I'd just like to clarify that a revision number is only 100%
> meaningless by itself- that is (as said before) /without/ an associated
> path.

There is always one meaningful path in any repo -- the root (and probably the
only meaningful path, for tha matter).

> The only way to access a previous point in the project's history is by
> knowing that point's revision number
> (or an associated translation,
   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> such as a date for "state on or before")

Or such as a label :). See where you logics brings you?

What we are asking with labels is exactly an "associated translation".

> _AND_ knowing the path to that project.

Paths are within repo, and make should sort them out.

> If your repository is set up in such a way that absolutely every file on
> it is absolutely essential to understanding absolutely every other file
> on it,

Of course it is not.

> maybe a repository-wide revision number /without/ an associated
> path would be fine for you (you could just assume the associated path is
> "the root of the repository" in all cases- still an associated path)

See above.

> And as said previously in this thread, there's still nothing stopping
> you from tagging your repository root if that's your particular case.

With versioned properties attached to dirs, one can easily tag _any_
directory; just it will be a bit inconvenient to find such labels. Root seems
to me a most natural and universal choice to store labels.

> Summary: Revision numbers _are_ important.

Good that you at last recognize this fact :)

> They have much meaning when
> in context. Without context they serve no purpose at all. (even "show me
> the log up to revision 12598" is meaningless until you read the log.

Have it come to your attention that you request a log using _revision number
only_ -- you obviously can not read a log before you run 'svn log -r 12598'?

And if you say 'svn log -r 12598 repo/my/tag', you are likely to get an empty
mesage since the tag was committed in, say, 12599? So what you want is 'svn
log -r 12598 repo/ | grep my/tag' or something more elaborate (to get the
whole log message, not just one line).

Which demonstrates, taken to the extreme, that _paths are meaningless_, and
revision numbers _are the only meaningful thing_. Of course, one wants to
remember names, not numbers -- hence labels come to life.

> "Show me the log at /tags/release-13" has paths cheaply associated with it.

At which revision? ;)

-- 
Dr. Saulius Gražulis
Institute of Biotechnology
Graiciuno 8
LT-02241 Vilnius
Lietuva (Lithuania)
fax:          (+370-5)-2602116
tel.: office: (+370-5)-2602556
      mobile: (+370-684)-49802, (+370-614)-36366
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