[Sugar-devel] GSoC proposal: version support for data store and Journal

[Sascha Silbe]

Hi!

As my diploma thesis got delayed again, I decided to apply for GSoC and 
implement #1 on my list of most urgent missing features in Sugar: 
Version support (sorry Michael, but Rainbow only got second place on 
that list).

The proposal is up on [1]. Feedback welcome (as always), both on the 
proposal and on the final (i.e. non-GSoC) UI design. While the GSoC 
project is only about a prototype with a limited UI, it doesn't hurt to 
start thinking about what it should become later. This is actually the 
hardest part for me: While I have strong opinions about how it shouldn't 
work and some ideas how it should, I actually don't know what design a 
regular user would understand best (or at all).


Copy of "2.1 Description":

Don't overwrite existing entries in the Journal with the same name 
(which currently means loosing the old content forever and happens 
automatically), but rather add a new version to the entry. Enhance the 
UI to allow easy (and simple to understand) access to "old" versions, 
including modification (which means automatically saving in a new 
branch). As "easy and simple to understand" isn't actually easy to 
implement, I'll concentrate on enhancing the current Journal view by 
adding previous/next buttons to the details view of each entry for the 
primary part of the project. Adding a version tree details view and 
possibly other ways of presenting versions are planned for the optional 
(based on remaining time) "bonus part". Metadata is going to be part of 
each version (and mutable without creating a new version) at first.


PS: Special thanks to Ben and Homunq (?). You provided great feedback 
(especially on issues where we disagree), I'm looking forward to 
pestering...I mean, discussing future more-or-less high-level design 
decisions with you. :)

[1] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Version_support_for_datastore

CU Sascha

-- 
http://sascha.silbe.org/
http://www.infra-silbe.de/
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