Re: [boost] [SVN] Repository branches/libs experiments

From: David Abrahams (dave_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-08-27 10:28:54

on Sun Aug 26 2007, Rene Rivera <grafikrobot-AT-gmail.com> wrote:

> David Abrahams wrote:
>> on Sat Aug 25 2007, "Robert Ramey" <ramey-AT-rrsd.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> The merging into the trunk was very confusing to me and
>>> I had to spend a lot of time getting things on my machine
>>> balled up and then unballed up.  Here are a couple of things.
>>>
>>> First of all, i had hoped I could just "merge" the changes
>>> on my branch directly into the trunk.  There  may be a way
>>> to do this with the command line interface but the windows
>>> interface doesn't let you do it.
>> 
>> Subversion is a command-line tool, not a GUI.  There is no "windows
>> interface to Subversion."  Somebody built a GUI that is an imperfect
>> reflection of the underlying tool.  
>
> That is less than accurate for Subversion. All the Subversion GUIs and 
> CLIs, AFAIK, use the same Subversion library. 

Yes.

> So in a sense they are all UIs to the same tool.

Yes.  And there's no windows-specific interface to Subversion, other
than those produced by parties other than the Subversion developers.
That's all I menat.

> And hence the "svn" command is just as much an 
> "imperfect reflection of the underlying tool" as TortoiseSVN. 

Except that it's the reference UI, and it's produced by the subversion
developers.

>> Once you understand the command line, it's easy to go back to a
>> GUI and have a sense of what it's really doing.
>
> I found it harder to understand what Subversion is really doing from
> all the reading of the book, docs, etc. I found it much easier to
> understand just by using the TSVN repo browser.
>
>>   $ svn --help merge
>
> In the TSVN context menu "ToroiseSVN/Merge...", brings up a dialog
> with all the options with much better explanations then "svn
> --help". And with immediate access to the repo browser in various
> places. And with the ability to do diffs directly in the dialog
> (which integrates with WinMerge if you want). And with the ability
> to pick merge revision directly from the log, which means one
> doesn't have to remember the revision numbers which is the number
> one annoyance (and source of mistakes) for doing "svn merge".

Nobody should have to look at the log either.  We should be using
svnmerge.py

> Please don't make the mistake of prejudging the available SVN GUI tools 
> based on your bad experiences with CVS GUI tools.

I never had a bad experience with them.  I use SVN and CVS "GUI" tools
from within emacs; they're very useful.  In fact, I love them.  That
said, I have a decent grounding in how the tools work because I read
the official documentation and familiarized myself with the interfaces
it describes.  I want other Boost developers to have the same
grounding, for their own sakes, and for mine (so the repo doesn't get
messed up).

-- 
Dave Abrahams
Boost Consulting
http://www.boost-consulting.com
The Astoria Seminar ==> http://www.astoriaseminar.com