RE: [platform-vcm-dev] Question to provider writers: Text/Binary default

[James_Moody@xxxxxxx]

Thanks for the comments.

Please note that although this API is in Team, it is exactly what you
suggest: API that the providers *may* call to determine what type a file
*should* be. The provider is under no strict semantic or implementation
obligation to honour the return type. As you note, there may be cases where
the provider "knows better".

james



|---------+---------------------------------->
|         |           "David Wegener"        |
|         |           <d.wegener@xxxxxxxxx>  |
|         |           Sent by:               |
|         |           platform-vcm-dev-admin@|
|         |           eclipse.org            |
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|         |                                  |
|         |           05/17/02 11:20 PM      |
|         |           Please respond to      |
|         |           platform-vcm-dev       |
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  |        To:      <platform-vcm-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx>                                                             |
  |        cc:                                                                                                 |
  |        Subject: RE: [platform-vcm-dev] Question to provider writers: Text/Binary default                   |
  >------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|



After some more thought (from home instead of work), I'm not sure that the
getType() method belongs in the Team API.  Not all providers are limitted
to
only 2 file types.  Specifically, Rational's ClearCase has a very rich file
type scheme.  They not only support text and binary, but also specific
types
such as word, rose, xml, and html.  Each has specific behavior w.r.t
incremental changes and merging.  It is also possible that one provider
might need a type defined as binary while another provider might be
sophisticated enough to use text.

Although it might be nice to provide a hint, it may need to be left up to
the individual providers.

Dave Wegener

>>>>Please note, I am not a provider but an end user.

>>We like end users too :)

>>>>I would rather insure that my
>>>>data is correct than worry about whether stripped eol characters cause
my
>>>>compare to show all lines as changed.  Recovering from the first may be
>>>>impossible.  Recovering from the second wouldn't.

>>Yup, this was our reasoning for going with binary, even though CVS
command
>>line clients typically assume text.

>>>>I would think that an argument could be made to add a third return type
of
>>>>unknown to the getType() method.

>>Actually, this is exactly what Team.getType() does!  The return value is
>>tri-state - constants for text, bin, unknown.
>>However, as outlined, there are issues with different providers
>>interpreting this differently because a plugin writer doesn't know what
to
>>rely on, or may rely on the wrong thing.

>>Thanks for the feedback,
>>Kevin




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