[GSoC Proposal] Better Version control front-end

[Andreas Pakulat]

On 29.03.10 10:49:50, Miha Čančula wrote:
> There are a few (maintained or not) plugins for version control in KDevelop,
> which mostly provide their own GUI for different tasks. There is also a
> framework composed of interface classes. What I would like to do is a
> unified front-end for them. It would display features common to all VCS's,
> and also some specific views. Those would be enabled based on what
> interfaces the specific plugin implements.

Thats not entirely true, all vcs plugins use the review-toolview for
reviewing commits and comitting them. In the same way all of them should be
using the KTE interface to show the blame/annotate information. And we also
have a log-viewer already that works independent from the VCS.

> One part would be directly related to version control features. It could be
> done as a single ToolView with tabs, or one ToolView per feature (my
> favourite), or perhaps even in its own window. Those windows/views would be:
>  - Modified files monitor (all)

This is already started in playground (IIRC) by Aleix, not sure what the
state is and how it works.

>  - Diff viewer (all)

It would be good to re-use the existing review-plugin for that, as it shows
the diff inline in the file.

>  - Branch viewer/manager (branching VC)
>  - Local and remote repository tracker (distributed VC)

These are some of the things really missing, especially since they enable
creation of project from a VCS.

> Additionaly, I would add "Import from KDE SVN" and "Import from Gitorious"
> options next to "Import existing project". This could be paired with
> one-click exports of new projects to the same servers.

I'm not sure how much sense these "shortcuts" make as its basically just
the url-typing you save and eventually not even that as you'll have to
provide the protocol anyway.
 
> Would such a unified front-end be a wanted feature? Or should I focus more
> on implementation of specific plugins?

Having the GUI shared between all VCS implementations is one of the most
important reasons for creating all those interfaces. So yes that would be
welcome.

Andreas

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