[RFC] proposed user doc for nested trees

[Ian Clatworthy]

I've spent today putting down on paper how *I* would like nested 'items'
to look from a UI perspective. Not all of this will arrive in the
initial cut but I wanted to dig deep enough so that we could debate the
initial design in a broader context.

There are a few tweaks to the current UI suggested by this
documentation. The main one is to to drop the 'reference' term and just
use 'nested' everywhere I think it is needed. So in particular, that means:

* join --reference => join --nested
* reference * => nested *

It's not a big deal but I feel this will make things a little more
consistent for end users (who know nothing about the internal 'tree
references' naming). Right now, --reference is a hidden option to join
and the reference command is only days old, so I don't feel compelled to
retain backwards compatibility here.

Naively, most of the suggested enhancements are small to implement
though I'm sure the overall work - including tests - is quite large.
(The main one which worries me is the proposed propagation of new
locations, but that might be shot down in any case.) As I said, not all
of it will make whatever we deliver in the initial cut.

I hope that the vision presented makes sense both from a end-user model
and task efficiency perspective. IMNSHO, if we deliver this, Bazaar will
have the nicest implementation of this feature around. But my opinion
isn't what matters - it's yours! To make feedback easier, I've attached
both the patch and a PDF version of the proposed section (7.5) of the
User Guide.

Enjoy,
Ian C.
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: nested-items-userdoc-draft.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 82350 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/bazaar/attachments/20090508/cd43a03d/attachment-0001.pdf 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: nested-items-userdoc.patch
Type: text/x-patch
Size: 25393 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/bazaar/attachments/20090508/cd43a03d/attachment-0001.bin