cvs is a pain!

[David Collier-Brown]

Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote:
> 
> what happened to the old versions of cvs???  it did a perfectly good merge
> and now if _any_ file is modified by two people, it marks totally
> independent modifications as "conflicts".
> 
> this is stupid, and i have a lot of files to update, and a lot of
> "conflicts" to remove.

	It was an asked-for change:  methinks you can turn it
	off with an option...

	The problem it addresses is as follows: two developers are
	working on the same problem, but don't know it.  They arrive
	at different corrections, and add them to the sources. One
	correction is in function a(), one in b().  The textual merge 
	program can't know they're really the same thing, and so 
	merges them both in.  The eventual effect can be interesting (:-))

	In smaller teams, with ``file locking by me telling you'', this
	doesn't occur, and so warning about changes is useless.  In big ones,
	like Sun, it's a constant problem, and our internal tools behave
	just like cvs, forcing you to scan all the changes and accept them
	before doing work.

--dave
-- 
David Collier-Brown,  | Always do right. This will gratify some people
185 Ellerslie Ave.,   | and astonish the rest.        -- Mark Twain
Willowdale, Ontario   | davecb at hobbes.ss.org, canada.sun.com
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