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

[Robert Collins]

On Sun, 2003-09-28 at 19:38, Andrea Arcangeli wrote:


> I already made the point that to be universal and to work with all sorts
> of languages and binary formats, you *can't* mix data with metadata. The
> default mode should be changed to be explicit, then if you want to leave
> tagline for backwards compatibility or for smaller projects that's
> certainly fine with me.

Bah, I started to answer your email point by point.

Lets just say:

taglines are an advance over explicit, not suitable for all projects,
but shortly, when per dir regexs exist, they will be suitable for all
projects. They handle binary and textual data *just fine* (especially
when combined with some explicit tagging). There is little interest
*here* that I've observed in removing the tagline concept. I'm a
hardened explicit mode user BTW, so this isn't 'biased cause I like it'
talk.

May I suggest:
* If you don't want to use taglines thats fine: they are optional.
* If you trust the folk here who have been using arch for more than a
few days ;) then please set your tagging-method to tagline (even though
you plan to use explicit everywhere). We aren't *ignorant*. 
* Your arguments about pollution are quite specious, and not backed up
by any empirical evidence I'm aware of. You might want to review your
assumptions before you discard the concepts out of hand. Given that
users can grab source via arch, it's not resonable to handwave that
users 'find it worthless' when, if the tools are easy, they may well
find it *invaluable*.
* Whilst I'm positive that arch will be improved to meet kernel hackers
needs, dropping or even deprecating tagline would not be an improvement.
I think you need to really *test* tagline behaviour and facilities - for
example exports *through* another RCS system without data loss - before
dismissing them out of hand. 

Really it's quite disappointing the depth of your (apparent) prejuidice.

Rob
-- 
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