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Re: Older versions through http-repository browsing

From: C. Michael Pilato <cmpilato_at_collab.net>
Date: 2005-08-23 23:38:24 CEST

Branko Čibej <brane@xbc.nu> writes:

> kfogel@collab.net wrote:
>
> >"C. Michael Pilato" <cmpilato@collab.net> writes:
> >
> >>Nonono. Please *do not* do this to public URL namespace. It's one
> >>thing to bind revision numbers to URLs in our command-line client
> >>syntax for the sake of UI and path/rev association simplicity (and
> >>yes, remember that this URL@REV syntax is not Subversion-wide -- it's
> >>only in our one little commandline client). But this change has no
> >>place trickling into mod_dav_svn.
> >>
> >
> >Uh, why not make any such syntax Subversion-wide? I mean, this
> >is... Subversion, after all :-).
> >
> Hah. So why don't we support bugtraq properties in the command-line
> client? TSVN does, and it's Subversion, after all ... :)

Besides that somewhat irrelevant bit of trivia (sorry, Brane), it's
entirely unnecessary for clients with UIs more conducive to visual
association between a URL (or path) and a revision number. Again, the
reason that we have an @-syntax *at all* is because command-line
interfaces have inherent limitations in terms of item associations.
It's a one-dimension layout, where the ideal situation for mapping
sets of URLs to sets of revisions is (obviously) a two-dimensional
grid.

I just don't think this is a wise instance of trying to code for the
lowest common denominator. Subversion is a version control system
with multiple RA interfaces. That one of them happens to work okey
dokey sorta kinda in a web browser is a major benefit to users of that
particular RA layer. But with the exception of the
'!svn-in-the-root-dir' limitation noted by Brane, we already have a
syntax, albeit "private", for accessing every version of every
versioned thing.

I'd much rather just let 'svn info' reveal the "!svn/bc/" URL for a
resource (especially now that it accepts public @-syntax URLs as
input) and let people copy *that* and paste it into their browser than
to have our server (which, by the way, has an open network protocol
that anyone can use, as has been demonstrated by the likes of JavaSVN)
complexify its very simple public URL schema and require all clients
of mod_dav_svn to know about those intricacies.

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Received on Tue Aug 23 23:42:04 2005

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