The sound distributed version control system

#200 Terminology: Changes vs. changes

Closed on January 9, 2021
loewenheim on December 8, 2020

The objects that you record, unrecord, push, pull, etc., are called “changes”. But what are the line deletions, insertions, etc., that are bundled in a change called? It’s tempting to also refer to them as “changes”, but that’s incredibly confusing.

pmeunier on December 9, 2020

Ah! This has been debated for a long time, when “changes” were called “patches”. I don’t really have any opinions about this kind of stuff, except that I don’t like changing vocabulary ;-)

Internally, there are three levels:

  • Changes, which are essentially metadata, contents, and a set of records.
  • Records, which are essentially a “UX level”, meaning grouping related things together (like deleting multiple lines, replacements…)
  • Actions, which are basic actions on the graph.

Edit: the name “patches” (which I liked) was changed because “patching” in English refers to fixing bugs (and bicycle tires), and not really “general” contributions. The word “contribution” was also proposed, but this was (1) longer to write and (2) possibly not “neutral” enough for such a pervasive concept in Pijul. The naming of credit vs blame also has an “everything is awesome” connotation, but since it isn’t the most important thing in Pijul, I don’t mind. Also, I’m not a native English speaker.

loewenheim on December 10, 2020

Yeah, the reasoning in your edit makes sense. I think you’re right about “patch” and “contribution” having baggage and “change” is a good name for the concept. What do you think about the term “item” for the individual changes making up a capital-C Change?

pmeunier on January 8, 2021

Hi! I’m trying to close all discussions before moving to beta, so I’m coming back to this.

Do you mean “items” instead of the current “records”?

loewenheim on January 8, 2021

I’m sorry, what are ”records” currently? The elements that make up a change?

pmeunier on January 8, 2021

Records are the numbered elements in the “change” view. Actions are presented to the user only in a cryptic form (of the form B:BD 3.5677/9)

loewenheim on January 8, 2021

Ah yes, those are what I mean. I didn’t know they currently have a name. It may be worth noting that they are currently displayed under the “Changes” heading in the change view.

pmeunier on January 8, 2021

After looking more at standard names, I believe the term “hunks” would be more appropriate than “records”. I’ve just changed that, will push soon.

pmeunier added a change on January 8, 2021
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pmeunier on January 9, 2021

This is fixed now!

pmeunier closed this discussion on January 9, 2021