Formats (Was: bzr 1.16rc1 released!)

[Jonathan Lange]

On Sat, Jun 13, 2009 at 6:11 AM, Martin Pool<mbp at sourcefrog.net> wrote:
> 2009/6/12 Paul Moore <p.f.moore at gmail.com>:
>> 2009/6/12 Paul Moore <p.f.moore at gmail.com>:
>>> Just a minor nit on the form of the announcement:
>>>
>>> 2009/6/12 Jonathan Lange <jml at mumak.net>:
>>> [...]
>>>> * A new repository format ``2a`` has been added.
>>> [...]
>>>> * ``--development7-rich-root`` is a new dev format, similar to ``--dev6``
>>>
>>> As a "normal" end user reading this, it sounds like bzr 1.6 contains
>>> two brand new formats. There's nothing that I can see which indicates
>>> which one I should use (OK, neither, as they are both development/beta
>>> versions, but I hope you see what I'm getting at). By my reading, 2a
>>> is what I should look at if I want a feel for what's coming in 2.0,
>>> and --development7-rich-root is "something else" - but I don't know
>>> what.
>>>
>>> This is precisely the sort of thing that leads to people saying  that
>>> Bazaar has "too many confusing formats".
>>>
>>> I assume it's obvious to the developers what's actually going on here
>>> - but hopefully my impression as a member of "the general public" is
>>> useful feedback on how it's presented.
>
> Thanks for raising it.  I think, in this case, it's best considered a
> bug in the release notes: we should just not mention
> development7(-rich-root), because it's essentially just a different
> name for 2a.  In the review John actually suggested deleting it
> outright.
>
> It's a good thing we do candidates and have thoughtful users giving
> feedback. :-)
>

I'll make sure we get a patch for this in before the final release.

jml