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Posted to users@subversion.apache.org by Michel Nolard <mi...@gmail.com> on 2005/06/03 21:04:32 UTC
Usability issue : "svn switch --relocate" should become "svn switch --relocation"
Hi everybody !
I am using svn for quite some time now and I find it very professional. Here
is my little touch to help you improve it. This is a very little usability
issue which can be corrected by improving naming consistency.
Now, I'll explain the problem and propose a solution with respect to the users
who already know svn and for the newcomers also.
The problem is very easy to understand and I found it while using svn.
Interface consistency is very important as it helps users to avoid losing
time by seeking how a command is formated as they know how the other are.
This relies in part upon grammar. The problem we face here concerns the
"--relocate" option of "svn switch".
When you type "svn switch", you mean "svn, let's switch" so switch it is
logical for "switch" to be a verb. Svn is very consistent in this regard as
all svn commands are verbs. Now, let's compare the "--relocate" with the rest
of "svn help switch" :
---------8<---------------8<---------------8<---------------8<------
switch (sw): Update the working copy to a different URL.
usage: 1. switch URL [PATH]
2. switch --relocate FROM TO [PATH...]
1. Update the working copy to mirror a new URL within the repository.
This behaviour is similar to 'svn update', and is the way to
move a working copy to a branch or tag within the same repository.
2. Rewrite working copy URL metadata to reflect a syntactic change only.
This is used when repository's root URL changes (such as a schema
or hostname change) but your working copy still reflects the same
directory within the same repository.
Valid options:
-r [--revision] arg : ARG (some commands also take ARG1:ARG2 range)
A revision argument can be one of:
NUMBER revision number
"{" DATE "}" revision at start of the date
"HEAD" latest in repository
"BASE" base rev of item's working copy
"COMMITTED" last commit at or before BASE
"PREV" revision just before COMMITTED
-N [--non-recursive] : operate on single directory only
-q [--quiet] : print as little as possible
--diff3-cmd arg : use ARG as merge command
--relocate : relocate via URL-rewriting
--username arg : specify a username ARG
--password arg : specify a password ARG
--no-auth-cache : do not cache authentication tokens
--non-interactive : do no interactive prompting
--config-dir arg : read user configuration files from directory ARG
---------8<---------------8<---------------8<---------------8<------
As you can see, apart "--relocate", all the other options are nouns or
adjectives+nouns. This is very intuitive as we build our sentence like this :
subject + verb [+ adjective] + noun
which becomes, in the case of svn :
svn command --option --small-option
So, to improve svn consistency, I propose to replace "--relocate" by a noun.
As I am not a native english speaker, I am not sure that "relocation" is
really what we need, but this is my proposition to improve the consistency of
Subversions Command Line Interface (CLI).
I propose that
- the "--relocate" option is still supported silently, aside the new
"--relocation" until subversion 2.x where, maybe, we can deprecate or remove
it.
- the svn documentation ("svn help switch" and svn book) reads "--relocation"
instead of "--relocate" to help the newcomers to adapt to the new, more
consistent option's name
What do you think of this ?
I hope this helps svn to become more usable :)
--
Michel Nolard
Re: Usability issue : "svn switch --relocate" should become "svn switch --relocation"
Posted by Ben Collins-Sussman <su...@collab.net>.
On Jun 4, 2005, at 6:53 AM, Ryan Schmidt wrote:
>
> On 04.06.2005, at 13:42, Max Bowsher wrote:
>
>
>>> When you type "svn switch", you mean "svn, let's switch" so
>>> switch it is
>>> logical for "switch" to be a verb. Svn is very consistent in this
>>> regard as
>>> all svn commands are verbs.
>>>
>>
>> help, info, log, status == nouns
>>
>
> And of course "resolved", which I still say should be (or should at
> least have an undocumented alias) "resolve" though nobody else
> seems to agree with me. :-) Apparently I'm the only one who
> mistypes this every single time. Oh well:
>
> alias svn resolve='svn resolved'
>
Funny you should say that. In the early days, it *used* to be called
'svn resolve'. But we changed it to 'resolved', because users kept
thinking that 'svn resolve' automatically resolved conflict markers
for them. By changing the word to a past particple, we were trying
to make it clear that the conflict has *already* been resolved.
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Re: How to revert changes from the multiple non consecutive revisions
Posted by Max Bowsher <ma...@ukf.net>.
Moisei wrote:
> Hello dear all,
> does any body have an idea about the subject?
> Currently I merge them one by one and I am just wondering
> whether another more efficient solution exists.
No, it doesn't - consider that in theory, a conflict could occur at any
intermediate stage.
Max.
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How to revert changes from the multiple non consecutive revisions
Posted by Moisei <mo...@gmail.com>.
Hello dear all,
does any body have an idea about the subject?
Currently I merge them one by one and I am just wondering
whether another more efficient solution exists.
Thanks,
Moisei.
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Re: Usability issue : "svn switch --relocate" should become "svn switch --relocation"
Posted by Ryan Schmidt <su...@ryandesign.com>.
On 04.06.2005, at 13:42, Max Bowsher wrote:
>> When you type "svn switch", you mean "svn, let's switch" so switch it
>> is
>> logical for "switch" to be a verb. Svn is very consistent in this
>> regard as
>> all svn commands are verbs.
>
> help, info, log, status == nouns
And of course "resolved", which I still say should be (or should at
least have an undocumented alias) "resolve" though nobody else seems to
agree with me. :-) Apparently I'm the only one who mistypes this every
single time. Oh well:
alias svn resolve='svn resolved'
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Re: Usability issue : "svn switch --relocate" should become "svn switch --relocation"
Posted by Max Bowsher <ma...@ukf.net>.
Michel Nolard wrote:
...
> The problem is very easy to understand and I found it while using svn.
> Interface consistency is very important as it helps users to avoid losing
> time by seeking how a command is formated as they know how the other are.
> This relies in part upon grammar. The problem we face here concerns the
> "--relocate" option of "svn switch".
>
> When you type "svn switch", you mean "svn, let's switch" so switch it is
> logical for "switch" to be a verb. Svn is very consistent in this regard
> as
> all svn commands are verbs.
help, info, log, status == nouns
> Now, let's compare the "--relocate" with the
> rest of "svn help switch" :
...
> As you can see, apart "--relocate", all the other options are nouns or
> adjectives+nouns. This is very intuitive as we build our sentence like
> this
> : subject + verb [+ adjective] + noun
> which becomes, in the case of svn :
> svn command --option --small-option
This argument is weak, because the command-verbs do not act on the
option-nouns. If you really want to compare commands to english grammar,
then options are closer in function to adverbs.
> So, to improve svn consistency, I propose to replace "--relocate" by a
> noun.
...
> I hope this helps svn to become more usable :)
I think this would be placing consistency over clarity, and would in fact
make svn _less_ usable.
"--relocate" being a verb very appropriately reflects the fact that a
relocate operation is a whole different kind of operation to a plain switch.
They share a command because there is a certain amount of family resemblence
between the two, but it would not have been entirely out of place to make
"svn relocate" a main command in its own right.
Max.
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