Definition of branch?

[Ian Clatworthy]

Tim Hill wrote:
> Sorry to spam with such a simple question ...
> 
> The User's Guide says: "A branch is an ordered set of revisions" and
> "Branches may split apart and be merged back together". From this, I
> take the definition of a branch to be a linear timeline of revisions
> that may or may not have merges to/from other branches which also have
> their own linear timeline.
> 
> However, it then also says: "A branch might have other lines of
> development..." which makes a branch sound more like an entire tree.
> 
> Trying to reconcile these two statements.

Technically, nodes in a tree have exactly one parent (zero if the root)
and zero or more children, so that's the wrong model. The data structure
is known as a "graph" which is like a tree but a node can have multiple
parents.

In an attempt to make Bazaar accessible to non-programmers, the
documentation starts with the most common case - a linear timeline of
revisions - and then attempts to build up to the true model (directed
acyclic graph). Apologies for the resulting lack of clarity. If you can
think of a better way of explaining this, please let me know.

Ian C.