Warning on get lock (Was: Get lock is not visible to other users)

>> I would suggest that a warning is displayed if a user tries to
>> lock a file that lacks the "svn:needs-lock"-property, as this
>> seems to confuse a lot of users and is sort of pointless.

> We store binary databases in svn repository. Therefore they

> cannot be merged and one must obtain lock each time before

> modifying and committing.

So far so good.

> The problem is that those databases cannot be even _viewed_,

> if they have readonly attribute set. Database engine just refuses

> to deal with such files. The database format isn't ours, so we

> can't change the behavior.

This is arguably a bug in the database engine. Or possibly a severe mismatch between the design objectives of the database and how you are using it. Anyway, it is a *very* special case and I don't think that it warrants not to implement a warning.

> A warning on each locking would be very annoying.

The depends entirely on the implementation. As stated in my last mail the warning does not have to be as intrusive as a popup, and even if it would be it could have a "Do not show this warning again"-checkbox.

I'm not out to annoy people, only to inform first-time users of a very non-obvious pitfall regarding the lock-functionality. Have we all not been confused about the lock and svn:needs-lock at some point? I have at least.

>> The warning could either be a part of the lock-dialog or a

>> popup window (ick), and should preferably contain

>> information about the svn:needs-lock property.

When I think about it a little bit more I think that I would prefer if the warning would be part of the lock-dialog. As long as it's noticeable enough (thru colours/icons) not to be overlooked. That way the warning could simply be ignored by people who have reasons to (would not affect workflow for them) but still remind people every time they try that this is essentially unsafe.

Hans-Emil
Received on Thu Apr 27 08:01:48 2006