Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Re: give us a hand with arch

[Dustin Sallings]

On Friday, Sep 26, 2003, at 13:24 US/Pacific, Tom Lord wrote:

> I don't understand why you don't create a shell alias or tiny script
> on your path.

	This could be the answer to much of the features that are already 
included in tla.

> In essence, you're asking for feature that, whenever you run commit,
> goes and runs some other program first --- but there are lots of
> mechanisms for running two programs in a row: why do we need more?
> Or, why shouldn't _every_ program have such an option?

	I'm not talking about running two programs in a row, I'm talking about 
a specific case where there is a specific piece of functionality that 
exists in all of the other SCM systems I've used (RCS, CVS, perforce, 
opencm) that I think would be a good optional way for tla to operate.

	I believe this would streamline development for people who like to log 
and commit at the same time, and I don't believe having every user who 
wants a feature implement the feature himself ever makes sense.

	Consider how complicated it could get.  You're not just running two 
programs in a row, you're running a program after a prerequisite 
program is considered to have run successfully.  The complication is in 
deciding what ``successfully,'' means.  I suppose it's not *that* 
complicated, but it's a more complicated problem than 
``make-log;editlog;commit'' and asking every user who wants this 
feature to implement this feature is wasteful.

	Also note that I'm not asking you to implement this feature, either.  
I just think it would be a good idea to offer the three options I 
mentioned in a previous mail:

        * Current (abort if no message supplied)
	* OpenCM-style (allow the log to be edited at any time, edit again at 
checkin time)
        * hybrid (if the log exists commit, else edit then commit)

	Allow the user to control the way he works in this regard.  You're not 
making anything better by *forcing* a user to separate log from commit. 
 The user will be doing the same thing, but either doing it by typing 
more commands, or by writing a tla wrapper to automate it.

--
Dustin Sallings