[development] Naming the CVS abstraction module

[John Wilkins]

How about Revision Control API? rc.module

Hopefully no one will confuse rc with the cola. or Radio  
Control. ;-)  Although, a Radio-Controlled Drupal sounds like fun.

  - John


On Jun 8, 2007, at 5:16 PM, Jakob Petsovits wrote:

> Derek (in his mentor role) and I are in search of a good name for  
> the module
> that I'll develop during this Google Summer of Code. (...once  
> again, as the
> directory in CVS will be recreated due to other reasons.)
>
> We need your input on this issue, as none of the options seems to be
> the ideal one.
>
> Objective of the module:
> To abstract the existing CVS integration into a separate API and an
> accompanying set of projects, so that we can more easily plug in other
> backends for different version control systems like Subversion,  
> git, etc.
>
> Now, naming this thing is a bit hard, as there's no widely  
> standardized term
> for these things which handle repositories and stuff.
> We can currently think of the following names for the module:
>
> - rcs.module / "Revision Control System API"
> Slightly suboptimal since there already is a revision control  
> system that goes
> by the name of "RCS". As the predecessor of CVS, it's not very  
> common these
> days, but people still use it. So when calling the module "RCS API"  
> it might
> be mistaken for the original RCS.
>
> - vcs.module / "Version Control System API"
> Better, but the name is quite verbose. I'd personally prefer
> "Version Control API" because it's snappy and easy to grasp from the
> beginning. However, there are other drawbacks on this.
>
> - vc.module / "Version Control API"
> Fixes the previous issue, but occupies a top-level acronym ("VC")  
> that is used
> for a common term like Venture Capitalists, selected indiviuals  
> also think of
> Visual C when reading this acronym. So this screams for namespace  
> clashes.
> Also, it doesn't immediately prompt associations for version  
> control with
> most people, which is certainly the case for "VCS" or "RCS".
>
> - versioncontrol.module, and other long names
> Annoying as function prefixes in the code, I'd rather prefer short  
> ones.
>
> - scm.module "Source Control Management API"
> Sounds reasonably good, looks reasonably good, but has the unfortunate
> drawback that it specializes on source control. There may be people  
> though
> who use revision control for other stuff like client documents or  
> config
> files, so this doesn't quite fit as well.
>
> - Other proposals?
> If you've got a good idea that we hadn't yet thought of, do tell us.
>
> Please chime in on this issue. The development list might not be  
> the most
> fitting place for this discussion, but given that the feedback in  
> the SoC
> group on the same issue wasn't all too extensive (say, none until I
> specifically promted my other mentor Andy) we thought it  
> appropriate to bring
> this issue to the mailing list.
>
> What do you think would be the best name for this module?
>
> -- Jakob, SoC student