RE: [alf-dev] RE: ALF Source Code Mangement Vocabulary Meeting+1-303-928

["Richard Title" <rtitle@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

...
> We ran out of time at the end to discuss some of these, but Brian Carroll 
> included managing metadata as a possible use case.  I could see Subversion

> users potentially wanting this feature as metadata can be used for a 
> variety of purposes.  In Subversion metadata is associated with a file or 
> folder and can be essentially anything including binary content, such as 
> thumbnail image for a JPEG.

Agreed. I had in mind use case 7 (create new version of Element) as
potentially covering changes in the data (i.e. the file-content), and/or
changes in the metadata (a.k.a. properties, a.k.a. attributes) of the
Element. Metadata could include filename, parent directory, modification
time, owner, permissions, file-type, thumbnail-image, etc. See Concepts,
item 2 (File & Directory concepts).

The part that can get thorny is namespace-handling. Is renaming a element an
operation on the element itself (as AccuRev does), or on the directory
containing it (as ClearCase does)? Is moving a file to a new directory an
operation on the element being moved (AccuRev), or on the parent directories
involved (ClearCase)? What's Subversion's model? 

Richard