[geeks] Subversion trunk and branch methods

[der Mouse]

> I'm starting to make the move to Subversion, [...] the first big
> decision about how to organize the repository.

> 	trunk/project1
> 	trunk/project2
> 	branch/project1
> 	tags/project2

> 	project1/trunk
> 	project1/branch
> 	project2/trunk
> 	project2/branch

> At least so far, I don't really understand the ultimate difference
> between the two approaches, and unfortunately neither "side" does
> much to explain the reason for their method.

Not knowing anything about how subversion manages things, the first
thing that occurs to me is to ask which is more important: manipulating
the trunk for all projects, or manipulating the trunk and all branches
for a particular project?

For example, if you want to replicate project1 to another machine
without replicating project2, it seems to me the second organization
has the edge.  But if, on the other hand, what you want to do is
replicate the trunk without the branches, for all projects, then the
first has a clear advantage.

At least that is, as I said, the first reaction I have, without knowing
anything of subversion's internals.  It may well be total gibberish.

> Subversion's one *HUGE* flaw, IMHO, is not having per-project
> revision numbers.  The svn developers say it is because of an
> unhealthy fixation on revision numbers, but that's not the problem.
> Number one, if I do 10 edits of proj1 and 800 of proj2, svn tells me
> proj1 is version 810 upon update.  That's an obvious untruth.

Only if you insist on reading "version N" as implying "N changes have
occurred".  I version much of my software with version numbers like
20060722; are you unable to see this as meaning anything other than my
having had over twenty million revs of that piece of software?

> Yes, the number applies to the entire repository, but then you have
> to ask, what happened to the other 790 revisions of proj1?

What happened to the other 20,060,721 revs of my program?

Not that I think subversion's rev style is perfect; I haven't thought
about it enough to hold an informed opinion.  But I do think the svn
developers are at least partially right in their response as you
reported it.

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