[Tfug] Version Control

[Bexley Hall]

Hi Zack,

On 3/26/2013 7:02 AM, Zack Williams wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 25, 2013 at 11:47 PM, Bexley Hall<bexley401 at yahoo.com>  wrote:
>> But, how does it decide that it is a text file?  By *hoping*
>> the file name indicates itself as such?  (i.e., *.c, *.txt, etc.)
>
> I would assume it uses some sort of "magic" like the file(1) command
> uses to determine content type.
>
> I haven't had file mangling issues with any modern DVCS, as that would
> obviously break their hash-centric nature of operation.

File mangling was a consequence of supporting keyword expansion *in*
the "managed objects".  And, because of the assumption that objects
were *text*.

Metadata associated with the VCS should be kept separate from the
objects that it manages.  I.e., an object shouldn't care how it
is managed.  OTOH, you often need mechanisms for dragging aspects
of this metadata *into* those objects "on demand".

How often have you seen an installer claim it was installing version
X when, in fact, the object was version Y (but someone forgot to update
the installer to fix this "cross reference")?  Or, documentation
talk about <foo> when it really should reference <bar>?

E.g., my printed documentation is tied intimately to my software
and hardware implementations.  Parts of each appear *in* the other
so there is no worry about failing to update "one" when "the other"
has changed.  I.e., make(1) can look at the modification time
of a file (another thing that VCS's tend to haphazardly *mangle*!
If I checkout a file, ALL of its attributes should be identical
to what they were at the instant it was checked *in*!) and know
everything that needs to be rebuilt -- even documentation!

(i.e., if I alter a model for a gesture, the graphic rendering
of it is automatically rebuilt -- I don't have to remember to
do this and have users wondering why the rendering "shows" a
gesture as one thing but the software recognizes it as something
different entirely!)

Gotta go put my ice plants in the ground before it gets much hotter
(Summer has come too soon!  :< )