Comments on: Subversion "Shelving" http://www.ofonesandzeros.com/2009/01/07/subversion-shelving/ a discussion of software and technology hosted by bryan napier Wed, 30 Jun 2010 11:06:00 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: bryan http://www.ofonesandzeros.com/2009/01/07/subversion-shelving/comment-page-1/#comment-67 bryan Tue, 21 Jul 2009 14:11:56 +0000 http://blog.ofonesandzeros.com/2009/01/07/subversion-shelving/#comment-67 I suppose the "clumsiness" is relative to your general subversion experience. Branching/merging in Subversion is widely regarded as a somewhat unkempt process. TortoiseSVN definitely does its part to simplify the process, but is it as straight-forward as TFS? Nope. As to whether shelving is branching or not, I would argue that it is very similar, if not identical, to the concept of private branches. The difference is more semantic than functional. Similar to how tags are handled in Subversion. At the end of the day you are in effect creating a branch, but because it is within the tag parent, the semantic is that it should be read-only. With shelves in this context, yes, it is a branch, but because the branch is within /shelf the semantic dictates that it is intended to be a "parking lot" for code for an indeterminate period of time, not a traditional branch that would have additional commits. Great comments Galaxis, thanks. I suppose the “clumsiness” is relative to your general subversion experience. Branching/merging in Subversion is widely regarded as a somewhat unkempt process. TortoiseSVN definitely does its part to simplify the process, but is it as straight-forward as TFS? Nope.

As to whether shelving is branching or not, I would argue that it is very similar, if not identical, to the concept of private branches. The difference is more semantic than functional. Similar to how tags are handled in Subversion. At the end of the day you are in effect creating a branch, but because it is within the tag parent, the semantic is that it should be read-only. With shelves in this context, yes, it is a branch, but because the branch is within /shelf the semantic dictates that it is intended to be a “parking lot” for code for an indeterminate period of time, not a traditional branch that would have additional commits.

Great comments Galaxis, thanks.

]]> By: Galaxis http://www.ofonesandzeros.com/2009/01/07/subversion-shelving/comment-page-1/#comment-66 Galaxis Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:58:42 +0000 http://blog.ofonesandzeros.com/2009/01/07/subversion-shelving/#comment-66 Actually Shelving is not Branchcing; only part of the equation. Don't forget about the merge back! THis process is clumsy and error-prone (as you'll see from the article you link to) especially after using TFS. Subversion has a ways to go, but TFS is relatively new and MS never rests on its laurels, so the for a while, the gap (and TFS's adoption) will probably widen. Actually Shelving is not Branchcing; only part of the equation. Don’t forget about the merge back! THis process is clumsy and error-prone (as you’ll see from the article you link to) especially after using TFS. Subversion has a ways to go, but TFS is relatively new and MS never rests on its laurels, so the for a while, the gap (and TFS’s adoption) will probably widen.

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