Re: Log Messages window: Inconsistent diff/compare

Simon Large wrote:
> Tobias Schäfer wrote:
>> On Sunday 15 April 2007 12:23, Stefan Küng wrote:
>>> Jared Silva wrote:
>>>> 1. Open the Log Messages window for a file.
>>>> 2. Select two revisions.
>>>> 3. Right click on one of the selected revisions (upper pane) and click
>>>> "Compare revisions". The two selected revisions are compared.
>>>> 4. Right click on the file (lower pane) and click "Show differences".
>>>> The two selected revisions (and one previous revision) are compared.
>>>> This is inconsistent.
>>>> 5. Double click on the file (lower pane). The two selected revisions
>>>> are compared.
>>
>> (4) and (5) should certainly have the same result - no question about
>> that. I've changed (5) to have the same result as (4).
>> Fixed in revision 9182 and merged into 1.4.x in revision 9183
>>
>> If you "compare revisions" in (3) it is correct that you get a
>> different result compared to "show differences" in (4) or (5). The
>> reason is that "compare revisions" shows the diff *between* two points
>> in time and "show differences" actually shows the differences which
>> have been made *in* those selected revisions. That is why in the
>> latter case the previous revision is taken when creating the diff.
>
> I don't think that is intuitive. In the top pane, if you select one item
> and ask for unified diff you get the diff between that item and its
> predecessor. If you select 2 items you get the unified diff between the
> two selected items.
>
> Compare revisions looks at all changes in a revision.
> Show differences looks at the changes in one file.
> Whether to use the previous revision depends on whether one revision or
> two are selected.
>
> (5) is the correct behaviour IMHO.

Further to that, I think the problem is one of terminology. A revision
can be considered as a point in history, or it can be considered as a
changeset (subversion docs also note this dual use). When a single rev
is selected, we are using the revision as a changeset. When two are
selected, we are looking at 2 points.

We could possibly help this a little by changing the wording in the
context menu for 1 and 2 selections:
1 item: View changes (in this revision)
2 items: view differences (between revisions)

Simon

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