Re: XML/vcdiff as patch file

Bob Miller <kbob@jogger-egg.com> writes:
> The XML/vcdiff format, on the other hand, is compressed to within an
> inch of its life, and has no redundancy. If you don't have access to
> the exact version of the file that the vcdiff applies to, the vcdiff
> is useless.
>
> This means that people won't be able to use XML/vcdiff files in many
> of the ways they currently use patches. Hang out on the Linux kernel
> developers' list for the premier example of patch abuse, or unpack the
> source RPM of a large package. (kernel-*.src.rpm is again a good
> example.)
>
> Just something to think about...

Oh, you want:

   <text-delta type="gnu-diff">[gnu diff data here...]</text-delta>

which has been discussed but not yet implemented. Anyway, with that,
xml tree deltas as generalized patch files becomes reasonable.

When `type' is omitted, it defaults to "vcdiff" of course.

-K
Received on Sat Oct 21 14:36:10 2006