[sugar] adding versions to journal/datastore

[Eben Eliason]

On Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 3:54 PM, Tomeu Vizoso <tomeu at tomeuvizoso.net> wrote:
> Hi Eben and other sugarites,
>
> I'm trying to find a simple way to add some version support to the
> journal, but for that I need to know what's the sweetest spot (no pun
> intended) between value and complexity.
>
> I'm thinking about making the next notable changes to the UI:
>
> - the journal list shows one line per "interesting" entry. Interesting
> entries are tips of branches and a branch is created every time the
> user clicks the Keep button or resumes an entry. Activities can also
> choose to make a branch in behalf of the user at any moment, for
> example just before the user selects "Erase all" in Paint,

I'm want to become a bit clearer with your terminology, because I'm
not sure that branches line up in my mind.  I agree that we
could/should have a number of incremental saves which are created
within a given activity session.  The latest of these would be
promoted to a new interesting entry should the activity crash, or the
machine restart, etc.  I agree that upon closing an activity session,
or pressing the keep button, a new interesting entry is created, also.

I'm unsure, however, that each of these entries represents the tip of
a branch, or that only the tip should be shown.  Should a branch only
be created when the user duplicates an entry or "keeps a copy"?  A
branch would certainly be created when resuming an old entry (not the
tip/top entry), but would you branch when the top entry itself is
resumed?

Also, to clarify, in your vision would resuming a given activity
instance (always from the tip, let's assume) several times result in a
new interesting entry for each, or would you collapse it into a single
entry unless a branch is made?  While this results in fewer entries in
the Journal, it defeats the idea of the Journal as a historical record
of versions, instead making it a flat folder sorted by modification
date.

> - in the detailed view of an entry, all its ancestors are displayed in
> a list, including "non-interesting" entries,

The latest designs actually include a popup menu in place of the date,
which allows one to select versions of the document by date without
exposing the whole list permanently in the view.  Ideally, this list
would include icons which indicate those which have been starred, so
that digging through a potentially long history is easier to manage.

Walter, could you elaborate on your comment?

- Eben


> - and that's it ;)
>
> Eben: is that too simple? If it's enough, I'll propose an API for it.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Tomeu
> _______________________________________________
> Sugar mailing list
> Sugar at lists.laptop.org
> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/sugar
>