Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Re: taglines vs explicit

[Bruce Stephens]

Zack Brown <address@hidden> writes:

[...]

> It's just strange because people have been advocating 'taglines' as
> if there is no justification to use anything else. If that were the
> case, why would arch support any alternatives?

No, people have been advocating using the tagline tagging method.
Arch supports alternatives for hysterical raisins.  Tom has improved
the configurability such that the specific tagging method doesn't make
that much difference.

So in the tagline tagging method, you can get the same behaviour as
with the explicit tagging method (OK, if you happen to have files
which have taglines in them then I guess the behaviour is different).

> I think one of the main reasons people are so vehement about it, is
> because the 'tagline' method can be confusing until the big payoff
> is discovered (regular filesystem commands 'just work' etc). So
> there's always that sense that if someone doesn't like tagline, it
> might be just because they didn't understand it.

> But there's no reason not to use 'explicit' for the Linux
> kernel. The 'tagline' method is one of arch's big features, and it's
> very cool and powerful, and there is *probably* a way to get it
> configured properly for almost any situation; but it's not necessary
> at all.

If you want to use explicit tagging, then there's no reason not to use
the tagline tagging method (i.e., to say "tla tagging-method tagline"
in the project).  There's a potential advantage in that that allows
you to also have files which use taglines.

> I think if you or others start using arch for the kernel, there
> might one day be a movement to migrate from 'explicit' to
> 'taglines', and then that will be difficult. But I'm sure a way will
> be found when the time comes.

That's my worry (and which tagging method you choose doesn't help that
much).  That's why I think the current implementation of explicit tags
is wrong: the mapping between tags and filenames should be in a file
somewhere, and that should be manipulated by "tla move", etc.
taglines in files then become an automatic way of working out
sequences of "tla move", etc., commands.  But underneath, everything
stays consistent.  Then to convert, you just need to find out what tag
tla has chosen for a file, and stick it into a tagline
comment---something which could easily be scripted.

[...]