henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (06/25/89)
In article <9486@b-tech.ann-arbor.mi.us> zeeff@b-tech.ann-arbor.mi.us (Jon Zeeff) writes: >BTW, it seems to me that a numeric patch tracking mechanism would make it >easier to know what patches you need. I frankly consider the date-based tracking mechanism a bit of an experiment; we'll see how it turns out. I like it better in several ways, but it does make it harder to enumerate all the patches preceding a given one. -- NASA is to spaceflight as the | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology US government is to freedom. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu
tneff@bfmny0.UUCP (Tom Neff) (06/25/89)
The problem with date-based patch levels, and I think that Henry has all
but admitted this but I want to get it on the record explicitly, is that
you never know whether you've missed an interim patch. If I am at
patchlevel 3 and I receive patchlevel 6, I know something's wrong. If I
am at patchlevel 3/2/90 and I receive patchlevel 9/17/90, who knows.
Conversely one might say that the problem with numeric patch levels is
that you don't know when they date from. However if the patch is
distributed as a new style context diff a la 'gdiff -C', then you get
everything you need.
If the cnews authors want state of the art, their version strings
should be formatted to include both a raw number and the revision date.
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"Truisms aren't everything." Internet: tneff@bfmny0.UU.NEThenry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (06/28/89)
In article <14416@bfmny0.UUCP> tneff@bfmny0.UUCP (Tom Neff) writes: >The problem with date-based patch levels, and I think that Henry has all >but admitted this but I want to get it on the record explicitly, is that >you never know whether you've missed an interim patch... Unless, of course, each patch simply includes a list of all preceding ones. Which is what we plan to do. This wouldn't work too well if we were up to patch 57 already, but that does not seem likely to become an issue for us. -- NASA is to spaceflight as the | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology US government is to freedom. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu