Re: Equivalent of "cvs rtag -F"

On Tue, Oct 30, 2007 at 07:29:52PM +0100, Matthieu Moy wrote:
> BRM <bm_witness@yahoo.com> writes:
>
> > Given that SVN is inherently different from CVS in its tagging
> > mechanism (and no amount of discussion is going to convince the devs
> > others - see the archives and you'll see what I mean), why not set up a
> > branch that students can submit their work to instead?
>
> Well, the problem is that we're trying to minimize the number of
> concepts the students will have to learn. "Branch" is still an
> advanced concept that I'd rather avoid.

You don't have to mention "branches" or even "tags" to students
working with Subversion.

In fact these concepts can be explained easier than in CVS:

  A tag is a copy of a directory that is (voluntarily) never
  ever changed again.
  
  A branch is a copy of a directory that is changed further
  after the copy has been made.

To really understand branches in CVS you have to understand
how revision numbers work in CVS. But in Subversion everything
is just a copy, just like folders in the filesystem (except
for that fact that they are versioned). Virtually every computer
user on the planet knows what a copy is.

The "tagging" part (copying the project into the submit directory)
in Ben's suggestion could get a bit complicated of course, since
students would need to use "svn merge" to merge changes from their
project directory into the submit directory if they are allowed
to change their submissions after making the first submission copy.

But why do you even require your students to set a tag?

They could also tell you the revision number of their final
version (shown to them at every commit).

Or you could check out their project state at deadline time
by checking out by date (which would also work in CVS).

In either of these cases your students would only need
to handle their own project directories, nothing else.
I guess this is as simple as you can get.

-- 
Stefan Sperling <stsp@elego.de>                 Software Developer
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