[cvsnt] Feature request: Commitable tags

[Max Bowsher]

I think you meant this to go to the list, as well as me.

Tuomas Huhtanen wrote:
> Max Bowsher wrote:
>> OK, just as a summary:
>>
>> Commitable tags are a kind of just-in-time branching, the idea being to
>> avoid the need to branch and then repeatedly merge when multiple lines of
>> development share the same file but are very unlikely to change it. (An
>> example: a new feature being developed in a complex project - only a
subset
>> of files will contain actual changes, the rest only redundant copies of
the
>> trunk changes, as they are merged into the branch).
>
> Yes, the idea is to be able to do just-in-time branching. But there is
> more than just the just-in-time branching. There comes a bunch of
> implicit features along.
>
> One aspect is that the developer cannot commit to a commitable tag if
> there is new revisions made to the file after the tag has been last
> updated (because the tag is not anymore in the leaf revision). So that
> forces the developer to make the "merging"(updating the tag/creating a
> branch) decision as early as possible. (It would be identical to the
> situation where developer tries to commit his changes to outdated
revision)
>
> One aspect is that you would get visual hints about how close the
> different releases are to each others, because the tags point to the
> same revision, not different but identical revisions. Even if they would
> not point to the same revision, the tags would still be close to each
other.
>
> One aspect is that the codebase would become kind of self organizing to
> logical modules (in version sense). Since you wouldn't create branches
> to files you dont need to branch, they remain in the last needed "module
> branch".
>
> But yes, the biggest plus is the ability to create branches only when
> needed.
>
>> The huge drawback is that you lose history tracking of the correllation
>> between files merely accepting trunk changes and those actually being
>> modified on the branch.
>
> I'm not sure I understand what you are saying here. Care to elaborate?

It would be impossible to reliably do a date-based checkout from a
commitable tag.

Max.