Re: VC state

[Dan Nicolaescu <dann@ics.uci.edu>]

Nick Roberts <nickrob@snap.net.nz> writes:

  >  >   > I don't see it as particularly experimental: it's what I now use as
  >  >   > a replacement for PCL-CVS when I use Bzr.
  >  > 
  >  > So can the experimental label be removed then?
  >  > How about binding vc-status to C-x v d so that it gets more exposure?
  >  > What is the plan for vc-dired?
  >  > When can it be removed?
  >  > IMO it does not make sense to keep code for two different
  >  > implementations of the same thing, it just adds complexity to the code.
  > 
  > Any "experimental label" is in the mind, so consider it already removed.
  > If vc-status is meant to be an improved replacement for vc-dired then
  > it seems reasonable to me that it takes the binding 'C-x v d'.  However,
  > I still use vc-dired so I think it's unreasonable to remove vc-dired
  > until vc-status does everything better.
  > 
  > I've only briefly looked at vc-status but here are a few things that I
  > noticed:

Sorry you went through the trouble to write this, most of this stuff is
well known, some is already present in the Todo section.  But none of
this is a bug per se, just missing features that were not implemented
yet because there were more important things to deal with.

If more people join the development, they can be implemented faster,
nothing here is complicated, and (except for the stay-local support)
does not require knowledge of VC.

So this is an open invitation for anyone to join the effort.

  > * vc-status doesn't seem to heed vc-stay-local or vc-cvs-stay-local.

That is fine, vc-status does not care about those, it just displays
whatever the backend tells it to display.  The backends are the ones
that are supposed to take care of this.

  > * The filenames are highlighted by the mouse but clicking mouse-2 doesn't
  >   visit the file in another buffer
  > 
  > * The statuses are highlighted by the mouse but clicking mouse-2 doesn't
  >   do anything special
  > 
  > * The bindings vc-status-previous/next-line are on the menubar as menu-items
  >   but no-one would ever use them from there.

They were added when the menu was almost empty, they might get removed
later when more useful stuff is added, but they don't hurt anything for now.

  > * I'm not sure if the keybindings are based on Dired or Pcl-cvs but they
  >   seem to be an unmemorable mix of upper and lowercase letters and other
  >   characters.

Most key bindings are explained in the comments.  But I don't really
want to discuss them on the mailing list, this type of discussion tends
to be never ending.

  > * If Emacs can't connect with the server there is no message in the buffer
  >   or elsewhere to explain what has happened.
  > 
  > * There is no description in the manual for vc-status.  Indeed the node
  >   "VC Status" is about Log-View mode.
  > 
  > * The mode name is "*VC Status*".  I think the convention of enclosing
  >   names in asterisks is for buffer names only.

I keep forgetting to change that one, I'll fix it when I get a chance.