Re: Project idea: a poor man's VC backend

[Marcin Borkowski]

On 2014-12-11, at 18:59, Eli Zaretskii wrote:

>> From: Marcin Borkowski <mbork@wmi.amu.edu.pl>
>> Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2014 17:09:05 +0100
>> 
>> In a recent question on ESE
>> (http://emacs.stackexchange.com/questions/2849/save-current-file-with-a-slightly-different-name)
>> the topic of versioning by means of putting a timestamp into the
>> filename came up again (it does have its place, especially when
>> communicating with people unable to learn a real VCS).
>> 
>> Just wondering: would it be possible/easy/reasonable to provide
>> something like this within the Emacs VC framework?
>
> Are you talking about time-stamp.el?

Not really.

I mean that e.g. C-x v v will "do the right thing", for instance:

I'm editing file.el (the only file in the current directory).  I press
C-x v v.  I'm asked for a "commit message" and the current contents of
file.el are save as e.g. file.el.2014-12-11-20:39:01-CET or something
like that, with the "commit message" put at the beginning in a comment
(for example).  I edit it further, and C-x v v behaves similarly.  Then,
I can press C-x v =, and see the diff between the current version and
the last stamped one.  Or C-u C-x v = and be asked (with autocompletion)
for the timestamp.  Then, have similar commands for analogs of
blame/annotate, revert to earlier versions etc.

Of course, it's impossible to recreate the functionality of Git in this
way.  Or even RCS, I'm afraid.  But for many use cases this might be
enough (for instance, one/two authors working on a single LaTeX file of
the paper).  (One paticular functionality that would be difficult to
implement would be branching; while possible, it might be even
misleading and hence dangerous.  Remember, the target would be the
users, uhm, not wise enough to use a real VCS;-).)

The rationale would be that e.g. if I work with a non-computer-savvy
researcher, any "real" VCS might be confusing; I might be expected to
e.g. send him file versions with a timestamp in the filename etc.

Best,

-- 
Marcin Borkowski
http://octd.wmi.amu.edu.pl/en/Marcin_Borkowski
Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science
Adam Mickiewicz University