On Jan 28, 2007, at 19:03, Les Mikesell wrote:
> B. Smith-Mannschott wrote:
> >> Here is the basis of my problem: We have one user who has
> refused to
>>> accept Subversion as a company-standard version control system
>>> unless he can check out individual files and do it with a GUI on
>>> Windows without the need for command-line commands.
>> When I close my eyes, I see a man flailing away at nails with the
>> handle of a screwdriver for a half an hour before finally
>> complaining that it's the lousiest hammer he's ever used. The
>> mind reels.
>
> Look at it from the other side. There are valid technical reasons
> for needing an upper level directory as a place to put the .svn
> subdirectory, but there is no such reason to insist on dragging all
> of the unwanted contents of that directory along on the initial
> checkout if the user doesn't want them. Why would you want to
> change your tools to a set that doesn't do the operation you want?
It seems my implication missed it's mark.
My point was not that SVN is a lousy hammer, but but that expecting a
good screwdriver to be a hammer is misguided.
i.e. The difficulty some new SVN users seem to have is in stubbornly
insisting on misusing the tool because one can't quite accept that it
offers a slightly different solution (screws) to the same problem
(affixing things). And this it does with aplomb, but it does require
stepping back and not "What am I trying to accomplish?" without
presupposing a solution.
// ben
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Received on Sun Jan 28 19:29:03 2007