Is this right?

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Guillermo Gonzalez writes:
 > On Tue, Nov 4, 2008 at 8:55 PM, Russel Winder

 > > To be honest all that is needed is a small announcement email on the
 > > email list and a note on the Lauchpad pages.  The issue is public
 > > information presented in places where people can find it easily.

I'm sorry, but that's 1995 thinking.  In 2008, the issue is not where
"people can find it easily"---as you point out, people generally won't
go farther than "trivially"---it is where "machines can follow it
automatically".  We know how to do this.

(1) HTTP redirect.
(2) Any URL schema private to bzr could grow a redirect status.
(3) repo formats could grow a redirect configuration.  (2) could
    probably be implemented this way, but for robustness (the case
    when a repo gets completely removed) there should be a net
    protocol that could be implemented by a lightweight server on the
    well-known port.

In general any VCS that aspires to being more than a "stupid content
tracker" should give some design thought to these life cycle issues at
a level higher than directory renaming.  (Not that I have done so, but
as it's given me an interocular trauma I thought I'd share!)

 > I'll [send out an announcement] ASAP
 > If you think that announcement should be in other places, please let
 > me know and I'll post there too.

Of course as long as the technology is broken, this is indeed the
courteous thing to do.