0.18: streamline "bzr help init" page

Jari Aalto jari.aalto at cante.net
Fri Aug 3 18:53:20 BST 2007


Take a look at listing

    $ bzr help init

which reads:

  Branch Format:
    --format=ARG        Specify a format for this branch. See "help formats".
    --default           New in 0.15: Fast local operations. Compatible with
                        bzr 0.8 and above when accessed over the network.
    --dirstate          New in 0.15: Fast local operations. Compatible with
                        bzr 0.8 and above when accessed over the network.
    --dirstate-tags     New in 0.15: Fast local operations and improved
                        scaling for network operations. Additionally adds
                        support for tags. Incompatible with bzr < 0.15.
    --knit              Format using knits.  Recommended for interoperation
                        with bzr <= 0.14.
    --metaweave         Transitional format in 0.8.  Slower than knit.
    --weave             Pre-0.8 format.  Slower than knit and does not support
                        checkouts or shared repositories.

An average joe probably just does:

    bzr init

Followed by this command, after seeing a message to suggest upgrading.

    bzr upgrade

If I read the listing, I really wouldn't know what to do with the
"other" formats. References to older bzr version would likely be of
interest of very small minority.

SUGGESTION

It might be better to just remove all the special options. Just leave
generic option:

   --format=ARG        Specify a format for this branch. See "help formats".

and have user to consult differences in one place: "help formats".
That page is in better position to describe what formats are
dperecated. This would also help preventing repeating the text in two
places.

Jari




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