Re: [PATCH 2/2] Add keyword unexpansion support to convert.c

On Tue, 17 Apr 2007, Andy Parkins wrote:

On Tuesday 2007, April 17, Linus Torvalds wrote:

quoted

Trust me. There's NO WAY IN HELL it will "work" in any other sense
than "limp along and not be usable".

Well I'm making progress, "limp along" is a significant step up from 
impossible.  :-)

Look, my primary objection to this is the SHOUTING about how impossible 
it is even though I've tried to address every problem you've thrown at 
me - I'm finding it really difficult to figure out why you're trying so 
hard to dissuade me from even _trying_.  If it all goes wrong (as I 
fully accept it might), so be it, I can live with that; I'll even be 
happy to tell you you're right and I'm wrong.  Why is this such a 
problem?

Keywords are so hated by everyone that I doubt they would ever be 
accepted into git - it's an intellectual exercise for me at this stage 
really. 

I cannot do otherwise than ask at this point in the debate: why isn't 
the makefile rule sufficient for your needs?  Why going through a 
complicated path that no one else will support due to its numerous 
pitfalls?

quoted

Yes, you can make your "print it out" example work, but as alreadyt 
mentioned, you could have done that some other way, with a simple 
makefile rule, quite independently (and much better) than the SCM 
ever did.

That's just being obtuse - no other tool cares in the slightest about 
the keywords, there are more "tools" in the world than just the VCS.

... which reinforces my question: why force a task on the VCS if it 
doesn't fit well with its fundamental design?


Nicolas