Re: Subversion Doesn't Have Branches aka Crossing the Streams aka Branches as First Class Objects?

On Fri, May 10, 2013 at 10:42 AM, Andrew Reedick
<Andrew.Reedick_at_cbeyond.net> wrote:
>
>> Isn't this just a difference in subversion's and your thinking about
>> the significance of the path change? Subversion is going to see the
>> path change affecting everything below it because of the way it holds
>> projects together. Is there some reason you are changing a common
>> parent path and thinking that it should not affect everything below?
>> Is it 'above' what you think of as the actual project?
>>
>
> Two words: meta data. A change in meta-data shouldn't change a branch's baseline. Moving "/trunk" to "/project1/trunk" shouldn't change the contents of the trunk baseline. Renaming a misspelled branch (/branches/rle1.0 to /branches/rel1.0) shouldn't change the contents of a branch/baseline.
>

How/why do you think of that differently than doing a similar
directory move/rename somewhere under trunk?

> So, from a technical point of view, where "svn has dirs, not branches," then yes, I would expect a parent dir change to do what it did. From a process/philosophical point of view where branches represent baselines, then I would not expect a parent dir change to do what it did.

You think some directories are magically different (i.e. where your
idea of a 'project' starts). Subversion doesn't.

> Anyway, it represents just one more potential quirk that you have to be aware of when using svn. Fortunately, it's mostly harmless. Long term, once svn's lower level features are mature (true renames, getting rid of --reintegrate, etc..) I would expect a push towards high-level process features such as branches as first class objects.

I think it is one less thing to think about when all directories are
handled the same way.

--
   Les Mikesell
     lesmikesell_at_gmail.com