tortoisebzr-developers team mailing list archive

[John Arbash Meinel <john@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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Mark Hammond wrote:
> I wrote:
> 
>> It is along this line I mentioned a mythical "Update command that does
>> the right thing."  [again, I point out this is just brainstorming :-].
>>
>> * User right-clicks on a folder and selects "Magic Update" from the
>> menu (OK, it probably will not say that)
> ...
> 
> I've expanded on these thoughts a little at
> http://bazaar-vcs.org/TortoiseBzrContextMenu - including screen-shots of
> dialog mockups and a reference of every command TSVN currently provides.  As
> noted at the top of that page, this is a straw-man - put up to be knocked
> down and to stimulate discussion.  I welcome all comments either here or
> directly on the Wiki page.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Mark
> 

I like parts of it. A few other things to consider:

1) Context is nice, but so is consistency. It isn't always obvious *why* a
context menu/dialog changes. And if it isn't obvious users are more likely to
be confused.

2) Merge is always something people will want if there is a working tree to do
it in. So heavy/lightweight checkouts, standalone trees, etc. I can understand
that the "simplest" user may not care.

3) From earlier:

> While we must allow that flexibility, its not clear how much tortoise should be involved in *advocating* particular models.  Some of the workflows you describe require a fairly deep understanding of bzr's mental model.  Is it Tortoise's job to *lead* them to a particular workflow (and therefore requiring us to educate the user about these concepts on the way), or is it Tortoise's job to simply *support* those workflows once the user has obtained enough knowledge to conclude he would like to use Bazaar in these ways?
>  
> I'm leaning towards the former: someone moving from another VCS probably isn't interested in learning the ins-and-outs just yet - all they want to do is check their code in, and update to what their teammates have been doing - particularly when they were not the actual decision-maker in the choice of bzr - they are really only using bazaar because their project is.

^- I'm not 100% sure what you are thinking. I *would* like to guide people
towards a workflow that works well for them. Whether that is a wizard that
sets up Bazaar based on how they will be using it, or some other fashion.

4) I agree that we will want to have a very low bar for people who barely
understand that they need to "commit". I've certainly worked with people that
you were lucky if they would commit their work once a week. And you had to
remind them to do so before they went home on Friday.

I would be more tempted to go into this mode based on a configuration setting,
and really present a streamlined experience for them.

John
=:->
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