Re: version control

[Derek Simkowiak <dereks kd-dev com>]

-> One thing I'd like to see in Gnome is integrated version control.

	I think "version control" is not the right term to use for what
you are asking.

	"Version control" implies all the advanced features (and business
policies!) of a real development environment, including branches, merging,
tags, checkins/checkouts, logs, test suites, notifications, etc.  It seems
like what you are really asking for (and please, elaborate) is the ability
to revert to previously saved versions.

-> When I make changes to my various abiword documents and gnumeric
-> spreadsheets,

	Most existing version control systems don't really deal with
binary files (or rather, "deal" with them by simply making a backup copy
every time the file is changed).  If the apps are using XML to save their
data, we're cool, but if not then there's lots of wasted hard drive space.

-> I'd like to be able to checkpoint specific revisions to
-> be kept.

	This sounds like "tags".

-> One way to implement this would be to have an RCS virtual filesystem.

	So what happens when you want to email (only) the latest version
of the file to a friend?  (Or delete old, obsolete versions to save hard
drive space?)  Also, RCS doesn't do well with binary files.

	I think this is a cool idea, and it offers something that other
desktop systems don't really have yet.  The complication comes from the
fact that version control is as much a matter of policy/rules as it is a
matter of differences between files.


--Derek