From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Linus Torvalds Subject: Re: Can I have this, pretty please? Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2007 11:38:53 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: References: <85ir7kq42k.fsf@lola.goethe.zz> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=us-ascii Cc: git@vger.kernel.org To: David Kastrup X-From: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Sun Aug 12 20:39:12 2007 Return-path: Envelope-to: gcvg-git@gmane.org Received: from vger.kernel.org ([209.132.176.167]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1IKILH-0007wP-UL for gcvg-git@gmane.org; Sun, 12 Aug 2007 20:39:12 +0200 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1765962AbXHLSjI (ORCPT ); Sun, 12 Aug 2007 14:39:08 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S932820AbXHLSjH (ORCPT ); Sun, 12 Aug 2007 14:39:07 -0400 Received: from smtp2.linux-foundation.org ([207.189.120.14]:48201 "EHLO smtp2.linux-foundation.org" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1763162AbXHLSjG (ORCPT ); Sun, 12 Aug 2007 14:39:06 -0400 Received: from imap1.linux-foundation.org (imap1.linux-foundation.org [207.189.120.55]) by smtp2.linux-foundation.org (8.13.5.20060308/8.13.5/Debian-3ubuntu1.1) with ESMTP id l7CIcxam002764 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO); Sun, 12 Aug 2007 11:39:01 -0700 Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by imap1.linux-foundation.org (8.13.5.20060308/8.13.5/Debian-3ubuntu1.1) with ESMTP id l7CIcsWW016710; Sun, 12 Aug 2007 11:38:54 -0700 In-Reply-To: <85ir7kq42k.fsf@lola.goethe.zz> X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-2.744 required=5 tests=AWL,BAYES_00 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.0-osdl_revision__1.24__ X-MIMEDefang-Filter: lf$Revision: 1.185 $ X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.53 on 207.189.120.14 Sender: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org Archived-At: On Sun, 12 Aug 2007, David Kastrup wrote: > > And then it struck me: Emacs has a very efficient browser for linked > one-line information that can be expanded into complete changesets > with diffs inside. It is called "Gnus". A newsreader. A newsreader is mis-designed for all the same reasons SVN is misdesigned: it sees the messages (commits) as a _tree_. Anybody who sees development as a tree is totally bogus by definition. It sees things forking off, but it doesn't see them merging. That's a fundamnetal and unfixable design bug. Of course, for news, that's ok (it might be *nice* if you could reply to two messages and see it as a merge, but that's not how things work), so it wasn't a design mistake for _that_. But to visualize a history, it's useless. Merges are as important as forks (arguably *more* important). "Forgetting" about merges is bad. Linus