On 10/14/2011 3:22 PM, spongman wrote:
> On Oct 14, 12:49 pm, Dave Huang <k..._at_azeotrope.org> wrote:
> > ... I think the distinction between a working copy and a repository
> > is still clear.
>
> I'm sure you do.
>
> However, for myself and several others who have taken the time to
> bring it up, it is definitely not clear.
Did you read this section of the help file?
http://tortoisesvn.net/docs/release/TortoiseSVN_en/tsvn-qs-basics.html
(or since TortoiseSVN is a Subversion client, the Subversion
documentation itself is also useful for learning about general concepts
that are important to know:
http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.6/svn.basic.version-control-basics.html)
> > "should the user interface only make sense to people who have read
> > the help file?" Yes.
>
> wow. if that's the case, you might want to address some of these
> entries on the about page (http://tortoisesvn.net/about.html):
>
> - Easy to use
>- descriptive dialogs, constantly improved due to user
> feedback
I don't think "descriptive dialogs" means that the dialog needs to have
have three paragraphs of text explaining what a repository is, what a
local working copy is, and the difference between the two.
> really. this isn't some kind of ad-hominem attack. i'm just trying
> to give some feedback from the point of view of a neophyte that
> might help improve the usability of the product.
That's great, but I don't think "I shouldn't be forced to read the
manual" is usable or useful feedback. Now your next paragraph is
something that's actually a concrete suggestion. This thread is pretty
old and I don't remember where it ended up, but I'm pretty sure none of
the other people saying that the dialog was confusing gave any actual
real suggestions--congrats, you're the first!
> might it be possible to show, in the dialog, the path/URL/version of
> both the 'local' and 'repository' entries that conflicted? that
> would certainly go a long way to clarify which term refers to which
> entry.
I don't know, as I'm just a user, not a TSVN developer, but it certainly
seems like that's possible. The dialog already shows the local path of
the file that has conflicting changes (first line in the dialog:
http://tortoisesvn.net/docs/release/TortoiseSVN_en/images/MergeConflictCallback.png).
I'm not really sure what else can be shown there that isn't a reminder
of what you already know though. You can already get the nitty gritty
details of the conflict by clicking the "Edit conflict" button, but the
information you get from that is definitely too much to show on the
dialog itself. You could show the URL of the repository, but you should
already know that--you specified it in the second page of the Merge
process (the "Merge revision range" page). You could show the revision
numbers that caused the conflict, but again, that's something you
specified yourself on the "Merge revision range" page.
Perhaps having a reminder of that information would be nice, but
personally, I don't even know what I would use that info for. When I
have a merge conflict, 95+% of the time, I have no idea whether I want
to prefer local or repository; it's probably neither, and I need to use
"Edit conflict" and decide what needs to be done--I barely look at the
Resolve Conflict window. The other <5% of the time, I know the conflict
is due to some unimportant change, like an embedded timestamp, or the
IDE shuffling some lines around for no good reason. Or how MS Office
likes to modify an Excel file when you simply open it. In those cases, I
know that I want the changes that I'm merging in, so I use "Prefer
repository".
--
Name: Dave Huang | Mammal, mammal / their names are called /
INet: khym_at_azeotrope.org | they raise a paw / the bat, the cat /
FurryMUCK: Dahan | dolphin and dog / koala bear and hog -- TMBG
Dahan: Hani G Y+C 35 Y++ L+++ W- C++ T++ A+ E+ S++ V++ F- Q+++ P+ B+ PA+
PL++
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Received on 2011-10-14 23:36:44 CEST
