Trivial but...

[Russel Winder]

On Mon, 2008-08-18 at 01:47 -0400, Aaron Bentley wrote:
> Russel Winder wrote:
> > I tried:
> > 
> > |> bzr upgrade
> > bzr: ERROR: The branch format Bazaar-NG meta directory, format 1 is already at the most recent format.
> > |>
> > 
> > Two thoughts:
> > 
> > 1.  I thought the NG had been dropped and this was just Bazaar.
> 
> We have not changed the format markers of formats that existed before
> the name change.  Newer formats, such as "Bazaar Working Tree Format 4
> (bzr 0.15)" do use the new name.
> 
> > 2.  This is not an error, so why claim it is?
> 
> You asked bzr to upgrade.  It couldn't.  You probably meant to specify a
> particular format, like 1.6 or pack-rich-root.  Error.

The fact that it decided that the current format is the most up to date
just means upgrade is a no-op, it is not an error it is just a state of
the world.  To label this an error implies that tehre is something wrong
when in fact there isn't, there is just no work to be done. 

On Sun, 2008-08-17 at 20:05 +0000, Neil Martinsen-Burrell wrote:
Russel Winder <russel.winder <at> concertant.com> writes:
> 
> > 
> > I tried:
> > 
> > |> bzr upgrade
> > bzr: ERROR: The branch format Bazaar-NG meta directory, format 1 is
already at
> the most recent format.
> > |>
> > 
> > Two thoughts:
> > 
> > 1.  I thought the NG had been dropped and this was just Bazaar.
> > 2.  This is not an error, so why claim it is?
> > 
> > Trivial but...
> 
> But what?

But still an issue despite being trivial.  The impression and mind-set
that the interaction gives is important to usability and take up.  To
give a person the impression that a natural state of the world that is
entirely reasonable is in fact an error is to create tension and stress
-- either than or a habit of ignoring messages.

So I would say that an attempt to upgrade a non-upgradable format is not
an error it is a request that leads to no action.

> The Bazaar-NG comes from the format strings that describe the various
formats. 
> I imagine that they started with the -NG and for consistency's sake
they have
> persisted in that way.
> 
> As for why it prints as an error, it uses the normal Bazaar exception
structure,
> which seems to take care of printing the "bzr: ERROR: " part (probably
inherited
> from StandardError).  It should be fixable but...

I continue to maintain this is the wrong thing to do, but I guess I have
said this often enough now that if no-one else is picking up on it then
I am out-voted and will cease and desist.


-- 
Russel.
====================================================
Dr Russel Winder                 Partner

Concertant LLP                   t: +44 20 7585 2200, +44 20 7193 9203
41 Buckmaster Road,              f: +44 8700 516 084
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