[REVIEW] Ch4. Branching and Merging - Advanced Merging

[C. Michael Pilato]

Arfrever Frehtes Taifersar Arahesis wrote:
>> Perhaps the best compromise for now is to put a sidebar in chapter 4
>> which alludes to the mega-complexity of svn:mergeinfo, and points
>> people to the collab.net paper?
> 
> I would prefer a new "Mergeinfo Implementation Details" section :)

I have to side with those who wish to hide most of this complexity from the 
users.  As has been noted, even if most users know *what's* going on, they 
either don't care (because it ain't causing them problems), or caring 
doesn't matter (because it *is* causing problems but no amount of 
implementation knowledge will help them).

The goal of the book is help folks use Subversion, which includes helping 
them know what to expect of it.  This way, when something they suspect is 
wrong occurs, the book can help confirm or deny that suspicion.

To that end, a sidebar about some of the things folks might see (such as 
copy/move creating mergeinfo, mergeinfo appearing on files that weren't 
really touched, a glossed-over explanation of elision) would be a great 
thing -- it helps them know they aren't seeing bugs or using the tool 
incorrectly.  And if the sidebar also helps folks learn best-practices for 
avoiding the nastier situations, double bonus!

-- 
C. Michael Pilato <cmpilato at red-bean.com> | http://cmpilato.blogspot.com/

"The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting.  It has
  been found difficult; and left untried."  -- G. K. Chesterton