Last day to vote/reject on proposed EOL names

[Michael B. Trausch]

On Tue, 31 Mar 2009 08:43:22 +1000
Ian Clatworthy <ian.clatworthy at internode.on.net> wrote:

> Thanks to everyone for their thoughtful emails on picking
> the right names for our EOL settings. Here's my latest
> thinking - the names will be upwardly compatible with
> those used for svn (except for cr which I'm not planning to add):
> 
> * native
> * lf
> * crlf
> * exact
> * native:crlf
> * lf:crlf
> * crlf:crlf
> 
> In general, wt-format[:repo-format] where the default
> repo-format is lf. I'm happy to change the separator to -, +, / or
> something else but : seems as good as any.
> 
> I'm planning to land EOL support into bzr.dev with those names
> 24 hours from now. If anyone objects, here's your last chance
> to say why.

I'm a bit late to the discussion, but I have a few questions as a
user.  First, why have the format stored in the repository be
customizable at all?  Why not have a normalized format inside the
repository?  Secondly, why not detect the user's environment and use
whatever settings are reasonable for the working copy based on the
user's operating system?

For example, if the user is using OS X, Linux, BSD, etc., or anything
that uses that style of environment (say, Cygwin, which usually uses
UNIX-style line endings by default), then UNIX-style line endings are
used in the working copy. If the user is using native Windows, then
Windows-style line endings are used. If bzr even runs on MacOS classic
versions pre-10.x, then such a working copy would use Macintosh-style
line endings.  But the repository format should be normalized
completely---at least that seems to make the most sense to me.  That
way, there is no fuss, no worry, and no confusion.  While the
text-based EDIT utility that comes with Windows can deal with UNIX line
endings (no idea on whether it handles Macintosh line endings or not),
Notepad certainly barfs on Unix files and stair-steps them when
viewed.  (EDIT is a good way to convert the files---manually---but that
stinks.)

Just my few words; feel free to ignore them if I somehow missed that
party.

	--- Mike