RE: [stellation-res] Proposal: audited checkins

["Jonathan Gossage" <jgossage@xxxxxxxx>]

> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: stellation-res-admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >[mailto:stellation-res-admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Mark C.
> >Chu-Carroll
> >Sent: January 23, 2003 9:33 PM
> >To: Stellation-res
> >Subject: RE: [stellation-res] Proposal: audited checkins
> >
> >
> >On Thu, 2003-01-23 at 20:20, Jonathan Gossage wrote:
> >> Is it possible to create a patch by multiple selecting a
> >subset of the files
> >> that are potential candidates?
> >
> >I just tried it, and it looks like it works. So yes.
> >
> >
> >
> >> This can be necessary, if for example, you
> >> start to do something and then discover that some refactoring
> >is necessary
> >> before contining the new development. I am a firm believer in keeping
> >> refactoring and new work separate and therefore often find myself only
> >> wanting to check in a portion of the modified files in a project.
> >
> >That's going to be a bit harder when you're using Stellation. None of
> >our current tools are capable of separating concurrent changes in a
> >single workspace. (My argument is, roughly, that this is an example
> >of why you want proper branches. You start a change, then realize
> >that you need to do some refactoring: checkin the change in progress
> >in your branch. Then do the refactoring, still in your branch. Then
> >push the changes upwards. If you're doing two distinct change tasks
> >at once, do it in two distinct workspaces, so that each change
> >stays atomic.)

My concept is similar to yours but I suspect that I would want to create a
new branch to support the refactoring since this is work that is logically
independent of the new development in progress.

> >
> >One of the big questions, in terms of UIs, in just how to present
> >branches properly in the Eclipse UI. There's no good way in the
> >current Eclipse GUI to express the notion of two workspaces (or views,
> >to use the clearcase term) open on the same project. I suspect we'll
> >want to add that.

This is a big issue and, yes, Eclipse does not do a good job here. Initially
we will have to go with independent workspaces probably, and I hope
performace will be adequate here. For example, at work, it can take 15
minutes to populate a workspace on a Unix platform because of flaws in the
tools that we use.

One approach could be a capability to rapidly recognize and apply the deltas
needed to morph a workspace from one branch to another. Another would be to
allow multiple branches to exist in a single workspace. I am not sure about
this one though since I think it could be very easy to become confused about
what you are working on at any point in time. I think that the single branch
at a time metaphor will be safer and conceptually cleaner. Actually I would
like to see a command that would simply say "load this branch" and the
implementation would automatically take care of all the bookeeping involved
in cleaning up the current branch and loading the new one.

I also think that to fully realize the ideas implicit in Stellation, Eclipse
will have to change in some significant ways.


> >
> >	-Mark
> >
> >

Regards

Jonathan