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Re: MIME Type for SVG images in SVN config

From: Karl Fogel <kfogel_at_red-bean.com>
Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2008 01:50:01 -0400

These two issues are relevant to this thread:

   http://subversion.tigris.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=2447
   http://subversion.tigris.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=2044

...as are some of the threads pointed to from them.

I don't have anything more than that to say; I just didn't want people
to waste time re-reinvent any wheels.

Best,
-Karl

"Gleason, Todd" <tgleason_at_impac.com> writes:
> I'd like to add another observation to that. If you want to plug in a
> custom merge tool, I believe you have to mark your svn:mime-type as a
> text type as well. It seems strange that, when you want to plug in
> something special to do a binary diff, that you are indicating it's
> text, when it may be an image, a document, or a database of some form.
> And it gets additionally confusing in that you start asking whether
> you need to worry about eol-style when you want to make sure that no
> conversion happens whatsoever on what is really a binary file.
>
> I would much rather have a property to indicate that the file was
> mergeable, rather than, again, coercing the MIME-type to be able to
> plug in a merge tool.
>
> And yes, I have read
> http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.4/svn.advanced.externaldifftools.html
> and although I'm very thankful for the documentation, it still seems
> strange to me.
>
> -----Original Message----- From: kogrover_at_gmail.com
> [mailto:kogrover_at_gmail.com] On Behalf Of Kevin Grover Sent: Friday,
> June 20, 2008 3:59 PM To: Jan Hendrik Cc: users_at_subversion.tigris.org
> Subject: Re: MIME Type for SVG images in SVN config
>
> On Fri, Jun 20, 2008 at 12:13 AM, Jan Hendrik
> <list.jan.hendrik_at_gmail.com> wrote:
>> Concerning Re: MIME Type for SVG images in SVN Kevin Grover wrote on
>> 19 Jun 2008, 22:18, at least in part:
>>
>>> On Thu, Jun 19, 2008 at 12:05 PM, Jan Hendrik
>>> <list.jan.hendrik_at_gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> > Have there been any considerations about excepting */*+xml types
>>> > in general as suggested in that thread back in 2004? Supposing
>>> > of course that XML never can be binary. Or is there an intention
>>> > to limit folks screwing up XML in plain text editors when they
>>> > rather should use the proper application?
>>> >
>>> I don't remember that particular conversation, but I remember
>>> others.
>>> Personally, instead of adding more exceptions to the svn:mime-type,
>>> I'd rather see a more generic approach:
>>> 1) All files are binary by default (current situation) 2) You mark
>>> a file as text with a property: this is the current situation. I
>>> would propose a change. I'd vote for svn:text-file (some similar)
>>> as a new property. It could be set to '*' (like svn:executable) or
>>> even to an eol setting (replacing svn:eol-style) and/or encoding.
>>> We could have related properties svn:text-file-eol-style and/or
>>> svn:text-file-encoding. If any are set the file is text, otherwise
>>> it's binary. svn:mime-type can be whatever you need it to be
>>> without affecting whether the file is text or not). This is
>>> sort-of the way it is. However, the property used it svn:mime-type
>>> and it's not obvious which files are text. Or at least, it's not
>>> obvious what the expectations to anything other than 'text/*' is
>>> binary. This would have to be made in
>>> or, as a consolidated property, svn:text (if set to anything) means
>>> the file is text, it could further have the optional settings eol:
>>> [native, cr, crlf, lf, any, ?]; encoding: [utf8, latin-1, ...]
>>> The second syntax could be extended to add new attribute values
>>> without affecting future version compatibility.
>> Indeed. Exceptions are not very good, in the end nobody but a few
>> insiders knows what all is excepted and results could be very
>> unexpected.
>> Of course I can hear the outcry: Don't do that, MIME is the official
>> regular legal way, anything else will confuse people, make them
>> screw up binary files, is irregular, illegal, and a big crime having
>> the smell of big company imposing propriatary non-standards on the
>> community of users.
>> Jan Hendrik --------------------------------------- Freedom quote:
>> Die Freiheit ist die Seele von allem, ohne sie ist alles tot. Ich
>> will, daß man sich dem Gesetz unterwirft, aber nicht als Sklave. --
>> Katharina die Große (1729-1796)
>>
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>>
>>
>
> Sorry to keep beating this dead horse, but I felt the need to point
> that while MIME is the _standard_ for file intended usage. It is
> _not_ the definitive standard for (nor does it even care) if a file is
> text or binary.
>
> A perfect example is SVG. To most of the world, SVG files are images
> first. The fact that the files are text (and XML) make absolutely no
> difference: they are _used_ as images.
>
> The text/binary issue is what SVN is concerned with. Rather than try
> to re-purpose MIME types with a non-indended usage, it would be
> clearer to have an explicit SVN marker (property) stating whether a
> file is text (svn:text or similar). An explicit (per-repository)
> configuration would be as acceptable (and possibly easier to maintain
> consistency).
>
> It would also be possible to add some config logic to SVN so that
> admins could list the MIME Types to treat as text. However, I find
> this solution 'less correct' than an explicit type because the
> functionality is hidden. Also, currently, this type of config is per
> user (or a best, per client machine), not repository, which makes
> consistency difficult to maintain (within repositories) and increases
> confusion - particularly with new users.
>
> - Kevin
>
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Received on 2008-06-21 07:50:37 CEST

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