merge algorithms (Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Re: -L option for tag?)

[Doran Moppert]

On Sat, Sep 20, 2003 at 03:03:14PM +0100, Andrew Suffield wrote:

 [ai/heuristic merge tools foo]


I don't know about you but I think the less uncertainty in the software
process the better!! I don't mind if my compiler uses heuristics to optimise
but when the code's being manipulated I want certainty and clarity. I'd agree
that the patterns merge behaviours cry out for something but I think that a
consistent & logical vocabulary is what is needed. Tom has done brilliantly in
representing concepts with ladder diagrams and illustrating scenarios in the
tutorial, but it feels to me like a "grand unifying theory" is missing.

Intuition tells me it should be possible to borrow the volabulary of an
"isomorphic" field .. mathematically I suppose revision control deals with set
theory and graph theory but I'm not well read enough to know more than the
basics of each :P

Does anyone on the list know of any relevant articles I could mine?