issues with merging

This is all great functionality but "sometimes" you want to explicitly
override the local file with what is in CVS. I guess I'm just suggesting
that there be a "Get clean copy" option on the Get Latest Version.
Sometimes a developer just wants to scrap everything they have done in the
past couple hours (due to an epiphany -- change of vision or approach). In
SourceSafe (which doesn't merge at all), you could just Get Latest Version
and go back to your starting point.
Maybe you can consider this a feature request. My other comment about
showing merge alterations could be considered a feature request too. I
don't always trust a tool to tell me that it did things correctly. I guess
I'm a bit paranoid about merges... like most developers. I'd just like to
see a status of changes... WinCVS does this with blue and red color coding
when it does a merge.
Brian
-----Original Message-----
From: Pushok Software [mailto:support@pushok.com]
Sent: Sat 3/27/2004 3:42 AM
To: Brian Trexler
Cc:
Subject: Re: [pst55] issues with merging
http://www.pushok.com/tickets_messages.php?id=55
I think your question is mostly caused by terminology problem. The
answer to it, just ignore this messages, since this is safe until you
get message that conflict appears. I will try to explain:
When you issue "Get latest version of files" CVS fetches new
changes that appears in repository to your local files. The behavior
depends on files state: checked out or not checked out.
a) not checked out
CVS just replace content of your files, status window will
contain message "Updating file ....". Conflicts cannot
appears, since you not change this file
b) checked out (and modified by you file)
CVS always tries to merge your file with repository
version. CVS not "remember" previous merging, and each time
you issue "Get latest version" it will try to merge your
file with repository. Status window will show "Merging file
..."
Unfortunately CVS does not differ when new data really
merged from repository, when nothing to merge. However if
it not report conflicts it is 100% safe merge, and it is
just caused by changes that make other developer, and
changes does not affect your modifications.
But if conflict appears (you and other developer modify
same part of code) you will be prompted for conflict
resolution and you will see real changes.

Something I found is that if you do a "Get Latest Version" with VS.NET, the
CVS Proxy will merge changes in the CVS repository with your local changes.
This differs from SourceSafe integration because it does not prompt for
getting a "clean" copy. With SourceSafe, I could always back out my local
changes by overlaying them with what is in the source code repository. I
forget how this worked -- might have been a popup for checking off "get
clean copy".

On the topic of merging, I wish that the merge changes were reflecting in
the "Output" window. It reports that it did a merge but it's unclear what
it did. Like most developers, I like to verify that the merge worked
properly.

By the way, your product is proving very valuable. I appreciate your
consistently rapid responses to these tickets. My whole development team
will be usign your product moving forward.

Thanks!
Brian