[Gnu-arch-users] Re: darcs vs tla

[Stefan Monnier]

> I actually liked the idea of taglines when I first learned about them.
> They seemed a good solution, worth the overhead of adding them to files.

I personally like the `tagline' tagging-method and see no reason why you'd
ever want soemthing else: it includes the `explicit' method (the one used
by darcs) as a special case, and it also includes the `names' method (the
one used by CVS) as a special case, so it's the best of all
possible worlds.

It should be improved in the following way, tho:
1 - it should be possible to move an arch-id from .arch-ids/foo.id to
    a tagline in the file `foo' and back.  Currently, the namespace of
    arch-ids that are in taglines is speparate from the namespace of
    arch-ids that are in .arch-ids/*.id files.  This means that if you're
    in a situation where a tagline can't be used any more or the other way
    around, you're screwed.
2 - `tla add foo' should know how to add taglines (probably with a
    {arch}/=tagline-rules file associating file name regexps to commenting
    rules.)

Number 2 is a mere matter of programming.
Number 1 can't be fixed without changing the archive format :-(

> I have come to appreciate with darcs not have to manage these at all. 

You don't have to manage them either with tla.  Just use `tla add foo',
`tla mv foo', `tla rm foo', ... just as you do with `darcs'.

>> mv and darcs mv are about the same. But you can't use a GUI navigator 
>> and have it run darcs mv.
> I would say it would be as easy as building one that could run 'tla mv'.
> :)

But if you use taglines, `mv' is all you need ;-)


        Stefan