X-Authentication-Warning: delorie.com: mail set sender to geda-user-bounces using -f
X-Recipient: geda-user AT delorie DOT com
X-Virus-Status: Clean
X-Virus-Scanned: clamav-milter 0.98.4 at av02.lsn.net
Message-ID: <5441519D.4060009@ecosensory.com>
Date: Fri, 17 Oct 2014 12:27:57 -0500
From: John Griessen <john AT ecosensory DOT com>
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:24.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/24.6.0
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: geda-user AT delorie DOT com
Subject: Re: [geda-user] SchemeIt
References: <CAGRhJMZgn5YojUcGKR+nEj6bPWjKmff4ykg_adjKeB=89q+_gw AT mail DOT gmail DOT com> <CAOP4iL1CY7=enEfxmCn3dhr36=j_ytnSjfhYvHVC6-TV8AK=5w AT mail DOT gmail DOT com> <CAGRhJMaFnS_PWZmKAio6DKBeWx0z57uV8XjnZKwb2WmkJVGCGQ AT mail DOT gmail DOT com> <00E6DEBC-05AB-4079-9E88-152225FF6DDE AT qux DOT com> <87wq80xauh DOT fsf AT hotmail DOT com> <CAOP4iL0WTYDc_UNmtQbencnx69t4u1X=HMDy1Y=7aM=EYW6-oA AT mail DOT gmail DOT com> <87siinykoy DOT fsf AT hotmail DOT com> <5440A6B2 DOT 2000900 AT ecosensory DOT com> <alpine DOT DEB DOT 2 DOT 00 DOT 1410170815140 DOT 3358 AT igor2priv>
In-Reply-To: <alpine.DEB.2.00.1410170815140.3358@igor2priv>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Reply-To: geda-user AT delorie DOT com

On 10/17/2014 01:45 AM, gedau AT igor2 DOT repo DOT hu wrote:

> Where it certainly won't help: - object coord changes, things getting moved around in pcb - logical connections change in sch -
> pcb element or sch symbol gets replaced - sch element gets embedded or unembedded
>
> In my practice after the initial few commits the latter group makes up majority of the changes.


Yes, that does stop an external VCS from helping merges.  It's a harder problem than my first glance idea.


> a format that would: - store symbols+attributes blocks separately from coordinates - would be restructured and indented for
> easier manual read (my daily PITA is figuring which attribute blocks are corresponding to which component and which attribute
> survives of the multiple blocks of an embedded sym) - a new structure should actively help diff to show useful context; if
> there are like 10 attributes of a symbol and the value of the last one changes, in the diff the attribute value change is
> visible, but usually not enough context to identify which component's attribute has changed; increasing the number of context
> lines doesn't help since this would increase the nosie too - separate coordinate info and pin connection info on nets; e.g.
> instead of a list of coordinates, a net would be a list of connection between named component/pins and where needed
> (automatically named) non-component hub points
>
> Diff on such a format would reveal how the connections have changed (among with a set of random-looking coord changes at the
> bottom which the user then could simply ignore).

What if that format was created by an external lint program instead of being part of every design file?


 > meaningful diffs in PCB world would mean a GUI diff tool

Yes, sounds right.  And also it would be great to have a fuzzy visual diff that showed some circuitry
shoved a little to the side still matching.  Highlighting of who the owner of the discrepancy is based on
a previous and a 2nd previous drawing might be helpful to keep collaborators from
accidentally changing something.  In PCB a visual diff could be used just to enforce working in separate corners
of a drawing for easy merging.  Suppose visual diffs were done every 3 minutes and a zone in between called
a no-person's-land was checked for changes and alarmed if any stepping on occurs.

John