RE: [TSVN] Re: Merge dialog, second attempt

Will Dean wrote:
..snip..
> This is excellent at trying to bang home that you have to do
> the -1, but I
> don't think it explains why very well. I maintain strongly that when
> presented as a mysterious 'you have to do the -1 bit', it
> makes no sense.
>
> Just because page numbers conventionally appear at the bottom
> of a page,
> doesn't mean that if I want to print pages 3-4 in a Word
> processor I have
> to ask for '2-4'. Quite frankly, people would laugh at this.
>
> I daresay there is a reasonable explanation in the SVN design history
> of why this is so (can anybody point me at this?), and I'm aware
> we can't
> change it now anyway. But I don't think that saying there's 'nothing
> illogical' about it is completely fair.

It reminds me of the glazed look some people get when first told that an
array of 4 elements has elements 0-3. The explanation is often greeted with
"that's stupid", but people get used to it.
I've been doing it for so long I'm a little uncomfortable when I use VB
(apart from the obvious reasons) and I declare an array[4] and I get to use
an index of 4, it doesn't seem normal. Of course the puzzled look on VB
programmers faces when I use element 0 as well is a bonus.
Back to the point, an explanation of _why_ you have to specify the revision
before the one you think you want would be a good idea, might help keep the
queries down too.

(of course it could be configurable but I don't think we should go there...)

Bill

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