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[platform-vcm-dev] ITeamProvider checkout

I'm not a VCM plugin developer, but from a users perspective I would like 
to comment on the checkout method documentation for the new ITeamProvider 
interface.  The documentation has the following line:

"Where the given resource is a folder, all members of the resource are also 
checked-out."

From a users perspective, this would not be my preferred behavior.  Our 
SCCS is Clearcase.  In Clearcase folders (directories) are managed 
resources separate from files.  This allows for the changes to the folder 
itself to be maintained in separate versions.  For example, If in a 
particular release some files are deleted from the folder, the versioning 
of the folder keeps track of the fact that from that version on, the file 
is no longer part of the project.  However, if I go back to a previous 
version, the file is available.  This accomplished by checking the folder 
out separate from the files that it contains.

This behavior is also inconsistent with the checkin and uncheckout.  This 
could lead to confusion on the users part where they accidentally checkout 
a folder which checks out all containing files and then immediately perform 
an uncheckout on the folder.  Based on the documentation, this would only 
uncheckout the folder.  The other files would remain checked out.

The behavior would also be complicated by checking out a folder that 
contains sub folders.  Would this checkout the sub folders and all of their 
contents as well?  This could lead to accidentally checking out the entire 
source tree for a package if the checkout took place on the root directory.

My preferred approach would be to treat folders like other files.  A 
checkout on a folder would only checkout the folder and not the 
files/folders that it contained.  This keeps the behavior consistent across 
the checkout/checkin/uncheckout calls.

Thanks,
Dave Wegener <wegener@xxxxxxxx>


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