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Re: svn edit

From: Branko Čibej <brane_at_xbc.nu>
Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2008 13:44:59 +0100

Ben Collins-Sussman wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 28, 2008 at 12:33 PM, Branko Čibej <brane_at_xbc.nu> wrote:
>
>> Still, the idea that you have to explicitly tell your wc that you're
>> modifying a file is abominable.
>>
>
> I used to think that too, but really... how is it any worse that
> having to run 'svn add', 'svn rm', 'svn cp', 'svn mv', 'svn mkdir'?
> :-) If anything, one could argue that svn is inconsistent in that we
> have to explicitly yell our intentions to libsvn_wc about everything
> we do *except* editing file contents. A number of svn newbies have
> been confused by this, and we had to point it out in the book.
>
> Honestly, the idea of an 'edit' command used to be appalling to me,
> but after three years of using perforce I find that it's not a burden
> at all. Not even noticeable. When working on code, the act of
> "beginning edits on a file" just doesn't happen that often. It
> happens on a handful of files exactly once when you begin the task,
> and then that's it. The cost of running 'svn edit' (or C-x,c-q in
> emacs) is a drop in the ocean compared to the amount of time spent on
> the coding and debugging. It becomes as transparent as all of your
> other interaction with the version control system.
>

Well, de gustibus non disputandum est, however, you'll admit that
getting used to something tends to skew the objectivity somewhat. I used
to have to same sort of twinges about not locking files when moving from
RCS to CVS ... and got used to it ... *but* then had to use ClearCase in
lock-modify-unlock mode and was not happy at all.

At one point I did enforce "cvs edit" on a project. It worked for about
a month, then people found out that a certain well-known editor could be
told to silently overwrite read-only files in certain directories. *splat*!

Since we've all agreed to wait for speed improvements to happen, let's
wait. :)

-- Brane

P.S.: With a inotify-like daemon you don't need "svn mv" and such any
more. :-P

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Received on 2008-10-29 13:45:19 CET

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