[svnbook commit] r2602 - trunk/src/en/book
cmpilato
noreply at red-bean.com
Wed Jan 3 22:24:12 CST 2007
Author: cmpilato
Date: Wed Jan 3 22:24:11 2007
New Revision: 2602
Modified:
trunk/src/en/book/ch-preface.xml
Log:
* src/en/book/ch-preface.xml
Choose the better of the two proposed quotes. Also, some minor
wording tweaks.
Modified: trunk/src/en/book/ch-preface.xml
==============================================================================
--- trunk/src/en/book/ch-preface.xml (original)
+++ trunk/src/en/book/ch-preface.xml Wed Jan 3 22:24:11 2007
@@ -1,29 +1,15 @@
<preface id="svn.preface">
<title>Preface</title>
- <!-- ### TODO(sussman): I replaced our rope-quote with some cool
- quotes that (to me) demonstrate some core truths about subversion's
- design philosophy. We probably don't want to keep both of them in
- there forever... remove one at some point, after we discuss. -->
-
- <blockquote>
- <attribution>Greg Hudson</attribution>
- <para><quote>Unnecessary optimization is the root of all evil.
- (Okay, 65% of all evil.)</quote></para>
- </blockquote>
-
<blockquote>
<attribution>Greg Hudson</attribution>
<para><quote>It is important not to let the perfect become the
- enemy of the good, even when you can agree on what perfect is.
- Doubly so when you can't. As unpleasant as it is to be trapped by
- past mistakes, you can't make any progress by being afraid of your
- own shadow during design.</quote></para>
+ enemy of the good, even when you can agree on what perfect is.
+ Doubly so when you can't. As unpleasant as it is to be trapped by
+ past mistakes, you can't make any progress by being afraid of your
+ own shadow during design.</quote></para>
</blockquote>
- <!-- ### NOTE: I've rephrased this section to make CVS sound like
- it "used" to be the big standard, but no more. :-) -->
-
<para>
<indexterm>
<primary>Concurrent Versions System (CVS)</primary>
@@ -41,21 +27,19 @@
geographically dispersed programmers to share their work. It fit
the collaborative nature of the open-source world very well. CVS
and its semi-chaotic development model have since become
- cornerstones of open-source culture.
- </para>
+ cornerstones of open-source culture.</para>
- <para>But like many tools, CVS began to show its age, and Subversion
- entered the picture. Subversion was originally designed as a
- successor to CVS. The designers set out to win the hearts of CVS
- users in two ways: by creating an open-source system with a design
- (and <quote>look and feel</quote>) similar to CVS, and by
- attempting to fix most of CVS's noticeable flaws. While the
- result isn't necessarily the next great evolution in version
- control design, Subversion <emphasis>is</emphasis> very powerful,
- very usable, and very flexible. And for the most part, almost all
- newly-started open-source projects now choose Subversion instead
- of CVS.
- </para>
+ <para>But CVS was not without its flaws, and simply fixing those
+ flaws promised to be an enormous effort. Enter Subversion.
+ Designed to be a successor to CVS, Subversion's originators set
+ out to win the hearts of CVS users in two ways—by creating
+ an open-source system with a design (and <quote>look and
+ feel</quote>) similar to CVS, and by attempting to avoid most of
+ CVS's noticeable flaws. While the result isn't necessarily the
+ next great evolution in version control design, Subversion
+ <emphasis>is</emphasis> very powerful, very usable, and very
+ flexible. And for the most part, almost all newly-started
+ open-source projects now choose Subversion instead of CVS.</para>
<para>This book is written to document the 1.4 series of the
Subversion version control system. We have made every attempt to
@@ -63,8 +47,7 @@
and energetic development community, so there are already a number
of features and improvements planned for future versions of
Subversion that may change some of the commands and specific notes
- in this book.
- </para>
+ in this book.</para>
<!-- ================================================================= -->
@@ -77,33 +60,33 @@
<para>This book is written for computer-literate folk who want to
use Subversion to manage their data. While Subversion runs on a
number of different operating systems, its primary user
- interface is command-line based. It is that command-line tool
- (<command>svn</command>) which is discussed and used in this
- book. For consistency, the examples in this book assume the
- reader is using a Unix-like operating system, and is relatively
- comfortable with Unix and command-line interfaces.</para>
-
- <para>That said, the <command>svn</command> program also runs on
- non-Unix platforms like Microsoft Windows. With a few minor
- exceptions, such as the use of backward slashes
- (<literal>\</literal>) instead of forward slashes
- (<literal>/</literal>) for path separators, the input to and
- output from this tool when run on Windows are identical to its
- Unix counterpart.</para>
+ interface is command-line based. That command-line tool
+ (<command>svn</command>) and auxiliary program are the focus of
+ this book.</para>
+
+ <para>For consistency, the examples in this book assume the reader
+ is using a Unix-like operating system and relatively comfortable
+ with Unix and command-line interfaces. That said, the
+ <command>svn</command> program also runs on non-Unix platforms
+ like Microsoft Windows. With a few minor exceptions, such as
+ the use of backward slashes (<literal>\</literal>) instead of
+ forward slashes (<literal>/</literal>) for path separators, the
+ input to and output from this tool when run on Windows are
+ identical to its Unix counterpart.</para>
<para>Most readers are probably programmers or system
administrators who need to track changes to source code. This
is the most common use for Subversion, and therefore it is the
scenario underlying all of the book's examples. But Subversion
- can be used to manage changes to any sort of information:
- images, music, databases, documentation, and so on. To
- Subversion, all data is just data.</para>
+ can be used to manage changes to any sort of
+ information—images, music, databases, documentation, and
+ so on. To Subversion, all data is just data.</para>
<para>While this book is written with the assumption that the
- reader has never used version control, we've also tried to make
- it easy for users of CVS (and other systems) to make a painless
- leap into Subversion. Special sidebars may mention other
- version control systems from time to time, and a special
+ reader has never used a version control system, we've also tried
+ to make it easy for users of CVS (and other systems) to make a
+ painless leap into Subversion. Special sidebars may mention
+ other version control systems from time to time, and a special
appendix summarizes many of the differences between CVS and
Subversion.</para>
@@ -165,11 +148,12 @@
your project will grow larger. You're going to want to
learn how to do more advanced things with Subversion, such
as how to use branches and perform merges (<xref
- linkend="svn.branchmerge"/>), how to use Subversion's
- property support, how to configure runtime options (<xref
- linkend="svn.advanced"/>), and other things. These two
- chapters aren't critical at first, but be sure to read them
- once you're comfortable with the basics.</para>
+ linkend="svn.branchmerge"/>), how to use Subversion's
+ property support ((<xref linkend="svn.advanced"/>), how to
+ configure runtime options (<xref
+ linkend="svn.customization"/>), and other things. These
+ chapters aren't critical at first, but be sure to read
+ them once you're comfortable with the basics.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
@@ -185,10 +169,10 @@
</variablelist>
<para>The book ends with reference material—<xref
- linkend="svn.ref"/> is a reference guide for all Subversion
+ linkend="svn.ref"/> is a reference guide for all Subversion
commands, and the appendices cover a number of useful topics.
- These are the chapters you're mostly likely to come back to after
- you've finished the book.</para>
+ These are the chapters you're mostly likely to come back to
+ after you've finished the book.</para>
</sect1>
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