Harry's Ruminations

User story: As a developer, I want to tag my code every so often, so that other people can get code that's stable, not bleeding edge. This is the classic CVS usecase: Commit your code, and then tag it as 'Production' or 'Released' or whatever. In CVS, that entails touching every file. In Subversion, that's a constant-time operation you can do wholly on the server. Let's say you want to copy your current /trunk to /tags/release-1.0 tag. Issue this sort of command svn copy http://server.foo.com/Repo/trunk http://server.foo.com/Repo/tags/release-1.0 Great huh? Thing is, that's great for leaving a trail of tags in your wake (Beta 1 -> Beta 'N', Release 1.0 -> 2600). What it's NOT good for is for the 'moving tag' usecase: I want to tag my code and then change that tag to point at a new revision of code. This is useful for when 2 modules are evolving towards a release: \module1 \trunk \common \module2 \trunk \...

[Insert obligatory apology/observation about not updating my blog here] It's a brand new me, folks. Less introspective. Focused on "What" and "How", not "Why." 'Why' is an empty question where one can spend one's whole life. I'm 30 now. I'm married. I have two kids I love very much. I also have no idea who I really am. Most of this blog from these many years is complete B.S., I'm afraid--at least the stuff about me. I'm hoping I've turned a corner, and I got a sign about that the other day: I got something back that I thought was lost. Years ago, the last time I thought I "had it together" I had a coffee cup that I used to take everywhere with me at work. I drank less coffee then, but I'd still fill it with water in the afternoons. Right after I proposed to Whitney, I lost it. Last Wednesday, I found it on a shelf, forgotten in one of our labs. Maybe certain things go away and just return whe...