[MERGE] Rule-based preferences (EOL part 1 of 3)

[Ian Clatworthy]

Aaron Bentley wrote:

> Another category would be something I pushed hard for in Montreal:
> versioned *data*.
> 
> The idea for this kind of configuration file is that you store the data,
> not the file itself.  The representation may or may not match the one in
> the working tree.  Then, as new representations for that data become
> available, you can change the representation without causing any
> semantic breakage.

Interesting.

FWIW, content filters kind of provide this. I think it's feasible to
remove the dependency that part 2 of this series has on part 1.
We could then, in theory, use a built-in content filter for storing
the raw rules data even.

Does that sound right? Is that the sort of thing you meant?

Ian C.