Lightweight branches?

[Dmitry Vasiliev]

Aaron Bentley wrote:
> Dmitry Vasiliev wrote:
>> Just curious about UI changes, why not use -r option instead of
>> --shallow/--horizon? For example:
>>
>> bzr branch -r -1.. <=> bzr branch --shallow <=> bzr branch --horizon -1
>> bzr branch -r -100.. <=> bzr branch --horizon -100
>> bzr branch -r -100..-10 <=> bzr branch -r -10 --horizon -100
>>
>> I think there is already a plenty of concepts in Bazaar so
>> simplification should be one of the important goals.
> 
> I agree with that, but I don't think that using a revision range instead
> of a flag does this.  If anything, it makes the behavior of -r
> surprising.  It also makes it hard to set up shallow branching as a
> default behavior, because supplying -r will override it.
> 
> I really think "truncate history?" is a separate question from "where
> should I stop?".  Making it part of the -r option also makes shallow
> branching less discoverable.

I think about "bzr branch -r A" as of "gets history of revisions from the first 
to A" and if extend this concept further "bzr branch -r A..B" could means "gets 
history of revisions from A to B". If you want shallow branching as a default 
behavior and supply -r options then "-r A" can be interpreted as "-r A..A" so 
it shouldn't be a problem.

-- 
Dmitry Vasiliev (dima at hlabs.spb.ru)
     http://hlabs.spb.ru