Death of RCS

Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 22:27:57 -0300
From: bobadams@ns.sympatico.ca (Bob Adams)
To: Michael Smith <michael@csuite.ns.ca>
CC: ccn-ip@chebucto.ns.ca, CCN Tech <ccn-tech@chebucto.ns.ca>
References: <Pine.LNX.4.10.9910262126210.3553-100000@pentagram.nslug.ns.ca>
Precedence: bulk
Return-Path: <ccn-ip-mml-owner@chebucto.ns.ca>

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Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! 
It takes a long time for us to give something a decent burial. 
Maybe it hasn't yet died because we are just keeping it on life-support.


Michael Smith wrote:
> 
> RCS seems to cause occasional problems for FTP and online users alike.
> 
> * online users occasionally get bumped off, and unless they re-edit to
>   reliquesh the lock, other editors can't edit
> * FTP users often download the entire tree, including the RCS directory,
>   which causes massive headaches
> * in a multi-editor site, one editor might download all files in the site,
>   thereby locking them against other editors, even if they only mean to
>   work on one or two files
> * in a single-editor site, RCS is useless since we've never developed a
>   user interface to support user access to it. RCS is great for version
>   control of Chebucto scripts and documents, but most IPs will never know
>   about it until it gets in the way.
> * in a multi-editor site, RCS is only useful for locking, which IMHO isn't
>   that much of a problem: if two editors edit a file at the same time, the
>   latest save will win regardless

[No problem if both have the new original on their own computer. 
a quick phone call cn establish which will upload the proper version.]

> * RCS takes up a lot of space (50 megs between NSChess and FSCNS alone)

[I have been told I consume over 50 mb for my 3-4 mb CIAU site.]

[A worse problem is the ~tilde duplicates of files. I imagine they would
disappear as well. They just complicate managing the two sides with FTP. The CCN
side has twice as many entries, so it is impossible to simply quickly scan
across to compare the latest file dates/times. In my mind it is by far the
biggest problem hindering FTP. I upload perhaps 30-40 files a day at various
times of the day. The ~tildes are simply in the way, and I cannot discover any
way in which they do me any good.] 

> 
> I'm thinking we can just modify the editing and IP-FTP scripts not to
> use RCS if an RCS directory doesn't already exist. That way new IPs won't
> have RCS, and we can slowly phase it out where it isn't needed, and keep
> it where it's useful (Chebucto stuff).

I have a couple of concerns about total automatic elimination of RCS for all new
IP accounts. 

First, I want it removed from all my own IP pages. I suspect most IPs feel the
same. 

Second, I have recently been involved with an IP Trainee who is exclusively
using Lynx-text dial-in. Will use the old shift-i upload.

Third, I have recently trained an IPE who uses both system. He will use FTP from 
hos work computer, but also uses the IP Organization's old 386 whle helping them
on the weekends.  

Have to consider all these cases.

I liked your idea earlier of having a simple dot file like .norcs that would
indicate that editor and IP didn't want to have to deal with RCS.

We seem to have no problem with g forward or .forward to anywhere in the world. 
Surely we would have no difficulty telling RCS to butt out of our IP site. 


Bob Adams 
IP Training
464-9258

> 
> Comments?
> Michael
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  Michael Smith                          michael@csuite.ns.ca
>  Director of information warfare        Pager: 458-5699
>  Chebucto Community Net                 http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~aa529/
> ==========================================================================

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