Opinion: Versioned files should be visible by default

[John Arbash Meinel]

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Nathan Johnson wrote:
| I'd like to present an opinion for consideration:
| Versioned files should be visible (not hidden) by default.
| When a file which is hidden changes, the effects can be unexpected for the
| user.
|
| For example, in the case of .bzrignore, when a user switches to a version
| that has a .bzrignore file, he may expect that some files were placed
| under version control when he did an add even though they were excluded by
| the .bzrignore.  The creation, disappearance, or change of .bzrignore
| across versions of the branch may confuse the user and it will take longer
| understand what is happening because the file is hidden.  A file named
| BzrIgnore or BazaarIgnore would be more likely noticed.
|
| If there would be enough such files that it would clutter the user's
| directory, then they may be put in a subdirectory, such as:
| BazaarDirectives/Ignore
| BazaarDirectives/ConstrainEOL
| RheinLand Versicherungs AG | 41456 Neuss | Amtsgericht Neuss HRB 1477
| RheinLand Lebensversicherung AG | Postfach 10 12 61, 41412 Neuss | Amtsgericht
Neuss HRB 9279
| .

I'm pretty sure that .bzrignore is the only file that is not visible by default.
(Of course, if you version your own .file then it will also be hidden).

.bzrignore follows the same convention as .cvsignore, .hgignore and .gitignore

Also consider that by default we have .bzr which matches .svn, .svn, and .git.

I think most systems default to having the ignore files hidden, because they are
considered "extra" properties that aren't directly part of the system being
versioned.

I'm not sure what it would take to support BazaarDirectives/Ignore as an
alternative, but I think using .xxxignore is actually more common than the
alternatives.

John
=:->
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