Re: [gedit-list] Project management, subversion/SCM integration

["Vic Fryzel" <vic fryzel gmail com>]

On Mon, Nov 24, 2008 at 5:09 PM, Frederic Back <fredericback gmail com> wrote:

I must say that I dislike this discussion. The leading versioning
systems differ a lot in their interface - even on the console - and they
only intersect in very few points, namely in the fact that they support
commits, checkouts, and diffs.

I like this discussion, it's opening up ideas.  I agree that they do have differences.  I think that one of the things being discussed here is the mechanism with which to describe their commonalities to gedit.

I somewhat agree that developing completely separate plugins would be ideal, however I also feel that those plugins would need a common interface within gedit.  Another of the things being discussed here is how to lay this out.  Do such mechanisms exist within gedit, or within a "parent" plugin, from which all other SCM plugins extend/implement?

To your point that there are numerous differences in leading SCM systems, I think that this is what suffices a common interface, and not a common abstraction of some core features.  If every plugin adheres to the interface, as Andrea has also mentioned, then I think we can get a little more gain when implementing specific functions.  If this interface were in gedit, merely a set of UI functions (change the icon of an item in the file browser, a diff viewer, etc.) then I think it would be pretty simple for SCM plugins to be built for gedit.

I started this entire thread wondering if patches could be applied to allow my SVN plugin to work.  At this point, having gone back and forth on the whole thing a few times, I'm tempted to just limit my scope to an SVN plugin for now, and work with the new stuff in trunk.  Plugins can always be combined later, and the requirements for an SVN plugin are clear (see: `svn help`.)  If there does turn out to be an abundance of core functions between SCM systems, then I would be more than happy in the future to migrate to a common interface.

In moving forward, I think there just need to be a set of UI extensions to gedit for plugins, mainly to better interface with the File Browser Plugin, which Jesse has already started to commit, and a set of guidelines for implementation based on such an interface.

I'm comfortable structuring these ideas here in the mailing list, but if anyone wishes, please feel free to use the wiki on the gedit-scm project page:

http://code.google.com/p/gedit-scm/w/list

Thanks.

-- 
Vic Fryzel (vic dot fryzel at gmail dot com)