Re: Subversion-style incrementing revision numbers

[Joel Dice <dicej@mailsnare.net>]

On Tue, 19 Sep 2006, Linus Torvalds wrote:
> On Wed, 20 Sep 2006, Petr Baudis wrote:
>> This is actually exactly how SVN revision numbering works. There's just
>> a single number (no '1.') and it indeed jumps randomly if you have
>> several concurrent branches in your (ok, Linus does not have any, just
>> someone's) repository.
>
> Oh, ok, if it's just a single numbering, then that's easy to do. It won't
> _mean_ anything, and you're seriously screwed if you ever merge anything
> else (or use a git that doesn't update the refcache or whatever), but it
> is simple and stable within a single repo.

Well, what it means is "this is the order in which commits were applied to 
this repository".  I suggest that this information is useful for the most 
common development style - the kind which relies on a central repository 
as the canonical source for a project's code.  "gcc-trunk-r117064" means a 
lot more to me than "39282037d7cc39829f1d56bf8307b8e5430d585f", and is no 
less precise.

I do believe that distributed VCSs such as Git can improve the 
productivity of these kinds of projects without forcing the developers to 
suddenly and dramatically alter their workflow.  I think ICNs would help 
make this possible.

  - Joel