Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!motcsd!hpda!hpcupt1!hpirs!runyan
From: runyan@hpirs.HP.COM (Mark Runyan)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Re: Source Code Control
Message-ID: <9630005@hpirs.HP.COM>
Date: 25 Jun 89 22:23:07 GMT
References: <133@tirnan.UUCP>
Organization: HP GSY/USO/UKL Cupertino, CA, USA
Lines: 20

>/ campbell@redsox.bsw.com (Larry Campbell) /  8:27 pm  Jun 24, 1989 /
>I'm not too familiar with SCCS, but with RCS it seems that you could
>use the "state" field to identify product versions.  ...

The problem of using the "state" field or even the symbolic name field to
identify a product's versions is there is no recording of changes to the
state field or symbolic name field of an RCS file.  An external logging
mechinism should probably be used to record that version A was in state X1
at Time T1, but was set to state X2 at Time T2.

Another point to consider when using the state field is if your "file"
is used in multiple products.  If Product P1 was in State S1 and Product P2
was in S2, and both P1 and P2 used the same version, then what state should
it be set to?  The symbolic names of RCS allow a user to point multiple
tags at the same revision number.  (Sorry, my own SCM problem deals with
source files that exist for multiple source products undergoing development
by several different teams.  If you aren't in that environment, then don't
worry about this paragraph... :-)

Mark Runyan