Re: Resolution of 'svn diff' change?

On Mon, May 19, 2003 at 11:37:09AM -0500, cmpilato@collab.net wrote:
>
> $ svn help compare
> compare (cmp): display the differences between two paths.
    
[snip]
>
> $ svn help diff
> diff (di): display local working copy modifications
 

We've been using the word "comparative" in this thread to mean "not
iterative", and so it sort of makes sense to us, in context, to call the
iterative operation "svn diff" and the non-iterative one "svn compare".

But really, *all* diff operations are comparative in nature, and anyone
who hasn't witnessed the evolution of these commands is going to look at
them and say, "what the heck is the difference between 'diff' and
'compare'?!?".

So i'm -0 on this as it stands, and +0 if we can come up with a
name(s) for the subcommand(s) which do a better job of making clear what
the difference is between them.

I have a hunch, though, that that's going to be difficult -- which,
to me, is evidence that an option is better than a new subcommand.
Furthermore, i'd make the comparative case the default, and use
'--iterative' for the iterative case, since "svn diff --comparative"
is IMO redundant.

-brian

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Received on Mon May 19 23:03:00 2003