Re: [boost] Vault: still needed?

Subject: Re: [boost] Vault: still needed?
From: Thomas Klimpel (Thomas.Klimpel_at_[hidden])
Date: 2009-01-23 05:40:52

David Abrahams wrote:
> > This is simpler than having to dig through the SVN repository to
> > figure out what to download, etc.
>
> Hmm,
>
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=7586&package_id=80
41&release_id=637761
>
> vs
>
> http://svn.boost.org/svn/boost/vault/xxx
>
> I like the latter better.

Should the SVN repository be used like the vault, so that .zip files are
put to a certain place? Or should it be used like a source code
management system? I guess the later is to be preferred.

But let's analyze the version with the .zip files a bit.
- A user wants to upload a .zip file to the SVN vault. So he checks out
the vault directory ("svn co https://svn.boost.org/svn/boost/vault
boost_vault", which will probably take 10-30 minutes because of all the
data in it), adds his file to the repository (cd boost_vault; cp
~/MyLib.zip .; svn add MyLib.zip) and commits it (svn ci --message
"added first version of MyLib, a library intended for doing My stuff"). 
- A user wants to update his library. He can either add another .zip
file with a new name, or just update the existing .zip file
- Another user wants to browse the vault. He opens it in a webbrowser
directed at http://svn.boost.org/svn/boost/vault and browses it. When he
wants to try a library, he just clicks on the .zip file and downloads
it. Very satisfying experience.
- Another user wants to use svn to do the same thing. So he checks out
the vault directory ("svn co http://svn.boost.org/svn/boost/vault
boost_vault", which will probably take 10-30 minutes because of all the
data in it), and the uses the directory browser of his os to browse the
vault. When he wants to try a library he has to decompress the .zip file
to some place. A unusual experience, but why not.
- Another user wants to see what changed between different versions of a
library in the vault. He decompresses the .zip files into different
places, and compares them with diff tools. He will find out what's
different, but will have no way of knowing why it was changed, because
there are no commit messages.

> > The Boost Vault is similarly simpler than a giant SVN tree (I
suppose
> > the word "inadequate" was a bit excessive.)
>
> In what way is it simpler?  It appears to be a giant directory tree,
too.

In the it is clear that this tree is supposed to hold compressed
archives. It's also clear how the tree is meant to be browsed. It's much
simpler to remove something "forever", which can be quite difficult in a
version control system. 

Regards,
Thomas