[RFC] general implementation of glob expansion on win32

[Kuno Meyer]

On 31.07.2007 17:38, John Arbash Meinel wrote:
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> Alexander Belchenko wrote:
>> Kuno Meyer ?8H5B:
>>> Hi all
>>> I'd like to get feedback for a patch that implements glob expansion on
>>> Win32 for (almost) all commands. Currently, glob expansion on Windows is
>>> just implemented for the FILE argument of the ``add`` command.
>>> ---
> 
> I think we really just want an easy way to do glob expansion for commands that
> need it. Rather than having it enabled on all commands.
> 
> For example, I don't think glob expansion makes any sense for URL's, and it is
> fairly common that we use them. (Then again, we rarely see a '*' in a URL, but
> '?' becomes fairly possible).
> 
> So I think just adding _glob_expand() to the functions that obviously need it
> (add, remove, status?, diff?). Is a decent intermediate.

Yes (and no ;-) )

Following Alexander's comment, I was considering to perform expansion 
for these parameters: file* (commands "add", "rm", "diff" and more), 
selected* (command "ci"), dir* (no commands yet) and perhaps names* 
(command "mv").

> 
> I think the real goal for Windows though, is to get people away from the
> command line entirely. TortoiseBZR is shaping up quite nicely, and then
> everyone can avoid the *awful* cmd.exe program. (The default terminal encoding
> is different from the default encoding for files, no shell expansion, no
> colors, default pager is 'more', generally poor PATH and limited toolset, etc).
> 
> Plus, most people on Windows are used to programs that let them click, and not
> have them type.
> 
> So, Kuno, I don't know your particular strengths. But you might want to give
> TortoiseBZR a look.

As a (mostly) Windows developer, I am (or was) frequent user of 
TortoiseSVN, TortoiseCVS, WinCVS and (in my current project) even of the 
hideous source control front end of the Microsoft Team Foundation Server.

One of the most productive UIs I used to work with is WinCVS (only 
lacking convenient support for .cvsignore). The Tortoise* tools are not 
that bad (especially for selomly-used operations), but nothing beats a 
quick "bzr qdiff" or "bzr qlog" on the command line. Not to mention a 
"bzr tree-clean --ignored" when the Visual Studio Test Manager gets 
confused by cache corruption and refuses to run.

I may not be typical Windows user. I made my first steps with bzr 0.7, 
am working on a daily basis with Bazaar since 0.14 as a "personal 
version control" for experimental branches and migrating my (TFS) 
working copy between several machines. I am feeling quite comfortable on 
the command line, which on Windows (although limited and with 
non-standard behaviour) is not as bad as its reputation. So, although I 
recognise TortoiseBzr as an important product for gaining a Windows user 
base, I personally am not really longing for it.

Kuno

> 
> I know Alexander Haro has been working on it for Google Summer of Code. Last I
> heard he has made some progress, and just needs to upload his changes to
> Launchpad. It is possible that just having another person to bounce some ideas
> off of, could be very productive.
> 
> John
> =:->