C News patch of 7-Sep-1990

[John F. Haugh II]

In article <1990Sep18.222450.25228 at zoo.toronto.edu>, henry at zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes:
> If there are other solid reasons for going one way or the other -- mind
> you, I'm talking about numbering vs. dating, not about patch frequency
> or people who won't apply patches or people who want a magic way to tell
> whether they are up to date -- I'd be interested to hear them.

i know better than to get involved in this ...

i see the problem as being similiar to the source code groups complaints
about posting README's at the head of a submission versus at the end or
in the middle, etc.  the amount of information conveyed by numbered
patches is greater than that for dated patches.

both dates and numbers are sequential.  july always follows june, just
as 7 always follows 6.  yet there are no numbers intervening 6 and 7,
unlike jun-01-90 and jul-31-90.  thus, there is more information
contained in the statement "this is patch #7" than in "this is patch
jul-31-90".

you might argue that the date "jul-31-90" conveys the additional
information that this patch is recent, therefore you have the most
recent patch.  by way of counterargument, consider the warren tucker
shar which only recently went from version 3.43 to 3.49.  the date
says nothing - in the case of wt-shar, 6 weeks is an eternity, in
the life of something more reasonable, 6 weeks is just yesterday.
the same is true for patch numbers - early releases of perl started
out with 20+ patches.  the current release of sc is like patchlevel
2 or 3 or something small.  so the numbers provide no additional
information either.

that date patches require a complete enumeration of all preceeding
patches is a serious detractor.  numbered patches have no such
requirement - quick - list all the prerequisites for patch #7.
now do the same for patch jul-31-90.  this alone suffices to
convince me that numbered patches are more simple and concise, and
IMHO ;-), superior ...
-- 
John F. Haugh II                             UUCP: ...!cs.utexas.edu!rpp386!jfh
Ma Bell: (512) 832-8832                           Domain: jfh at rpp386.cactus.org
"SCCS, the source motel!  Programs check in and never check out!"
		-- Ken Thompson