Re: Suggestion: "svn explain"

On 3 Aug 2002, Gareth McCaughan <Gareth.McCaughan@pobox.com> wrote:

> I propose that typing, e.g., "svn explain 21087" should yield
> a friendly description, one or two paragraphs long, of
> what that error means, what's likely to have provoked it,
> and what to do about it. Perhaps this should be generalized
> beyond error messages: "svn explain transaction" could
> give a brief explanation of what a transaction is.

Some people have previously expressed concern about the idea of
putting too much documentation into the binary.

Here's a counter-proposition: have a web site giving the same
information, and easily searchable by error ID. Allow space for
people to post followups giving additional information.

One advantage is that people with old versions of svn can still get
more up-to-date help, and it's easier for updated info to be accepted
onto a site than merged into the main source.

(Not that I'm going to write it or anything :-)

-- 
Martin 
Obscene material is proscribed in this way [by the Miller test:] it
appeals to the prurient interest [and] it's offensive. Basically, it's
"It excites me; and I hate it."
	-- Prof. Jonathan Zittrain, via Seth Schoen
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