Re: svn diff interface

On Wed, May 08, 2002 at 11:54:25AM -0400, Greg Hudson wrote:
> Okay, I have two concrete proposals for rectifying the problem I see
> with the current interface. I have no opinion on which one is
> adopted, though I would like to see one of them.
>
> The "smart" proposal is just like what we have now, except that the
> comparative case allows wcpaths as well as URLs:
>
> Iterative case: svn diff [-r {N|N:M}] TARGET ...
> Comparative case: svn diff TARGET TARGET
>
> In the comparative case, TARGET can be URL@REV as well as just URL or
> WCPATH, of course. To resolve the ambiguous case where two targets
> are specified and no -r option is given:
>
> If both targets are wc paths, assume iterative case.
> Otherwise, assume comparative case.
>
> This lets us "svn diff URL ." to compare our working directory against
> a URL (perhaps the vendor branch of the sources you're working on, or
> whatever). We can't "svn diff" between two wcpaths, but I think
> that's okay.
>
> This might seem a little bit too heuristic, but (a) I don't think
> there's any case where it doesn't do what the user expects, and (b)
> it's not particularly worse than what we have now, where "svn diff
> URL1 URL2" is forced to the comparative case even though it's an
> instance of the iterative usage.
>
> The "dumb" proposal is:
>
> Iterative case: svn diff [-r {N|N:M}] TARGET ...
> Comparative case: svn diff2 TARGET TARGET
>
> This interface allows for "svn diff" between two wcpaths, and isn't
> heuristic at all, but does require users to remember which command
> does what they want.

i very much prefer your 'smart' proposal to your 'dumb' proposal.
anything that gets us to the point where we need a second diff command
seems like a step backwards in usability for me.

-garrett

-- 
garrett rooney                    Remember, any design flaw you're 
rooneg@electricjellyfish.net      sufficiently snide about becomes  
http://electricjellyfish.net/     a feature.       -- Dan Sugalski
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