[Gnu-arch-users] Archive namespace usability (was: Online book for usability)

[David Allouche]

On Fri, Jun 25, 2004 at 05:49:32PM +1000, Matthew Palmer wrote:
> 
> my-default-archive is merely an arch-internal CVSROOT equivalent.
> 
> What I'd really like, instead of that, is aliases for archives.  Add an
> --alias option to register-archive, which allows you to specify an alias
> name.  For simplicity, aliases probably shouldn't be allowed to be valid
> archive names.
> 
> I'm quite sure I'm not the only one that would find this useful.  Specifying
> an archive by it's full name is an RSI-inducing experience.  Of course, it
> can be simulated with environment vars, but I think it'd be worth including.
> After all, most Arch operations could be done with a handful of commands --
> the rest is just cream...

I consider the whole "archive namespace input" problem to be a deep and
far-reaching issue in the CLI of the tla.

There are two sides to the solution I envision for this problems:

  * Good defaults

    my-default-archive is really limited, and often error-inducing
    because it is global and context-unsensitive. Many commands could
    infer default archive and version from the current tree in a way
    which is both predictable and convenient.

    It is easy to just say that, but at least it points at what I think
    is the problem. Proposing a complete solution would be a delicate
    and time-consuming task which I do not have the time to undertake
    now. And selling that solution to Tom is a another time consuming
    task. I hope I will be able to collaborate with Aaron Bentley on
    pyarch, or on another similar solution, in order to provide a useful
    solution in the form of working code.
 
  * A powerful alias system

    Some time ago a wrote a extensive design in the hope to address this
    many-sided problem in its entirety. Unfortunately, it generated no
    feedback.

    http://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/gnu-arch-users/2004-04/msg00386.html

    Comments are still more than welcome.

-- 
                                                            -- ddaa