Re: programmer's keyboard

From	Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com>
Newsgroups	comp.programming
Subject	Re: programmer's keyboard
Date	2013-01-03 15:00 +0000
Organization	A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID	<kc46e4$9ou$1@dont-email.me> (permalink)
References	(14 earlier) <kbqiq3$3q7$1@news.albasani.net> <akc2s5Fltc3U4@mid.individual.net> <kbrl33$659$1@news.albasani.net> <kc18sk$1s6$1@dont-email.me> <kc25p6$ul9$1@news.albasani.net>

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BGB wrote:

> the advantage of the GUI based option though is that usually a person
> can click on things faster than they can type things.
> 
> this is mostly an issue of having longish paths to 'cd' through, making
> getting to the desired directory take a little longer (meaning a higher
> initial cost).
> 
> 
> this means that navigating to a directory, or moving between
> directories, can be done faster and easier in Windows Explorer than in a
> shell.

I fail to see how this is relevant.  With today's version control systems, 
you can run any version control software within any subdirectory of a 
versioned project.  Therefore, navigating a directory tree is a non-issue.

This non-issue becomes even less of an issue when we acknowledge that 
terminal emulators support a number of autocomplete features for some 
decades now.

A file manager is a useful tool, and it simplifies some tasks.  Yet, this 
sort of complain regarding the command line interface (CLI) tends to be 
caused by CLI-phobia instead of actual technical limitations or efficiency 
problems.

> but, even then, there would be a secondary annoyance:
> MS configures their compiler via environment variables used in the batch
> file used to open the shell (rather than, say, putting the compiler on
> the default path and using an INI file or similar for config). granted,
> OTOH, it does make MSVC a little easier to auto-configure tools against
> than GCC (which would externally appear to use magic to know its
> settings...).
> 
> the issue here is that an "open shell here" would then not be nearly so
> useful if the intent is to rebuild the project...

Version control systems aren't used to build projects, only to 
manage/inspect the series of changes made to a project on any of its 
development branches.  Rebuilding a project has as much to do with version 
control software as copying files around with Microsoft Explorer.

> as-is, I currently have 3 branches of my VM's interpreter:
> the original / current live version;
> a version which I tried to rewrite to use untagged values, but ran into
> problems I can't yet address (there are still holes in the type-system,
> which is a killer for untagged values);
> another version, which I am in the process of migrating from the
> original tagged pointers, to a new tagged-reference system (where the
> references are always 64-bits), mostly as the prior effort ran into a
> wall (64-bit tagged references allow unboxed int/float/double on 32-bit
> targets, although sadly, not an unboxed 64-bit long).
> 
> 
> but, how am I managing these branches:
> well, via copies of the directory tree.
> 
> if this new branch gets written and working, it may then be substituted
> in, in place of the original.

Version control systems were developed specifically with that scenario in 
mind, and that's precisely how they are used.  For example, take the KDE 
project and how they've been using subversion:

http://techbase.kde.org/Getting_Started/Sources/Subversion#The_KDE_repository_structure

>> Development branches are useful even in single-developer projects.  They
>> let you have multiple development branches which can be easily merged and
>> forked.  The best part of it is that versioned history can be kept
>> between merges.
>>
> 
> yes, but this can also be done (more or less) via copies, and is "part
> of the process".

It can be done, but it represents the hard way of doing this, which is also 
error-prone, needlessly time-consuming and needlessly complex.

If you prefer, say, juggling an ungodly number of different tars of a 
directory tree, following different naming schemes whose meaning may even be 
forgotten somewhere in the future, then you are free to do so.  Yet, there 
are far better ways of doing that and more, which are also far simpler as 
well as more robust, resilient and efficient.

Rui Maciel

Thread

programmer's keyboard bob <bob@coolfone.comze.com> - 2012-12-26 11:45 -0800
  Re: programmer's keyboard Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2012-12-26 15:01 -0600
    Re: programmer's keyboard "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-12-26 21:36 +0000
      Re: programmer's keyboard BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-26 21:12 -0600
      Re: programmer's keyboard Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2012-12-27 23:45 -0600
        Re: programmer's keyboard "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-12-28 13:46 +0000
          Re: programmer's keyboard Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-29 11:42 +1300
          Re: programmer's keyboard "Chris Uppal" <chris.uppal@metagnostic.REMOVE-THIS.org> - 2012-12-29 15:15 +0000
            Re: programmer's keyboard BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-29 14:41 -0600
              Re: programmer's keyboard "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-12-29 21:10 +0000
                Re: programmer's keyboard BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-29 15:26 -0600
                Re: programmer's keyboard "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-12-29 22:41 +0000
                Re: programmer's keyboard BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-30 02:12 -0600
                Re: programmer's keyboard "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-12-30 11:20 +0000
                Re: programmer's keyboard malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com - 2012-12-30 10:19 -0800
                Re: programmer's keyboard BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-30 14:51 -0600
              Re: programmer's keyboard Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-30 10:43 +1300
                Re: programmer's keyboard BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-30 01:55 -0600
                Re: programmer's keyboard Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-30 21:06 +1300
                Re: programmer's keyboard BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-30 02:35 -0600
                Re: programmer's keyboard Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-12-30 18:12 +0000
                Re: programmer's keyboard BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-30 13:30 -0600
                Re: programmer's keyboard Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-31 09:36 +1300
                Re: programmer's keyboard BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-30 17:27 -0600
                Re: programmer's keyboard Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-31 13:00 +1300
                Re: programmer's keyboard BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-31 03:13 -0600
                version control (was: Re: programmer's keyboard) rugxulo@gmail.com - 2012-12-31 10:36 -0800
                Re: programmer's keyboard Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2013-01-01 09:05 +1300
                Re: programmer's keyboard BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-31 16:58 -0600
                Re: programmer's keyboard Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2013-01-01 13:24 +1300
                Re: programmer's keyboard Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2013-01-02 12:23 +0000
                Re: programmer's keyboard BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2013-01-02 14:34 -0600
                Re: programmer's keyboard Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2013-01-02 15:35 -0600
                Re: programmer's keyboard BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2013-01-03 13:19 -0600
                Re: programmer's keyboard Willem <willem@turtle.stack.nl> - 2013-01-03 08:35 +0000
                Re: programmer's keyboard BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2013-01-03 13:46 -0600
                Re: programmer's keyboard rugxulo@gmail.com - 2013-01-03 00:52 -0800
                Re: programmer's keyboard Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2013-01-03 15:00 +0000
                Re: programmer's keyboard Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2013-01-02 11:58 +0000
                Re: programmer's keyboard BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2013-01-02 15:03 -0600
                Re: programmer's keyboard rugxulo@gmail.com - 2013-01-03 00:54 -0800
                Re: programmer's keyboard BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2013-01-03 13:06 -0600
                Re: programmer's keyboard Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-12-30 18:04 +0000
                Re: programmer's keyboard BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-30 14:24 -0600
                Re: programmer's keyboard Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2013-01-02 11:34 +0000
          Writing Experimental Code "Aaron W. Hsu" <arcfide@sacrideo.us> - 2013-01-02 15:08 -0600
  Re: programmer's keyboard Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-12-28 11:45 +0000
    Re: programmer's keyboard BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-12-28 12:29 -0600

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