Re: TSVN 1.3.2 & external Merge tool (Araxis) with /readonly parameter ...

Molle Bestefich wrote:
> Stefan Küng wrote:
>> In that case, you should file a bug with Araxis: a program should ignore
>> switches it doesn't know, or at least have a switch to do so.
>> I'm not talking about command line params but switches.
>
> Erh... what?
> If you shove random garbage at some program, it should err out.
> It should definitely NOT pretend all is well.

Not really. If you pass invalid params to it, then it should error out.
But ignore everything it doesn't know.
You know, the "garbage in -> garbage out" design is bad.

> (Point being that the user will not know whether they're doing it
> right or wrong if the options they type wrong are just ignored.)
>
> And how is a "switch" not a command line parameter?

A switch is something like "/switch" or "-switch"
a param is without the '/' or '-'.
For example:
svn checkout url path --ignore-externals
params: checkout, url, path
switch: --ignore-externals

As you can see, a param can't be ignored because it can only be valid or
invalid. A switch however is clearly distinct from a param and can be
valid (known), invalid (known but illegal, for example a --recursive
switch for operations which can't be done recursively) and unknown.
In case of an unknown switch, a program should simply ignore it.

It's different for command line tools like svn or e.g. 'copy', because
those really are used directly by the user. But GUI programs aren't used
that way but only called with command line params by other applications.
So they should not error out but ignore switches they don't know.

> I think this is a bug in TSVN :-).

Of course! It's always a bug in TSVN.
What do you suggest in this case? Provide yet another option to ommit
the param? But then some diff tools will know a 'readonly' param but
have it named differently, so what about those? A text box to enter the
param the external diff tool uses for 'readonly'? I'm starting to feel
sick just thinking of the bloating settings dialog...

Stefan

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