Support of versioning systems (CVS, Subversion)

[allanmarcus]

How about CVS integration in Path Finder?

[ecammit]

That sounds really cool. I like it a LOT!! :D

[neilio]

I talked about this with Steve (I'm a developer, so this would be useful for me, too), and we're looking into ways of integrating some kind of versioning into PF.

Lots of interesting ideas here, so keep your eyes peeled! This won't make it into the next version, but it's on the to-do list.

Neil

[knghtbrd]

I don't use it personally, but the feature is part of Xcode. Perhaps now's the time to discuss what's wrong and what's right with the way Xcode does it? I still do all of my CVS the old fashioned way.

[ecammit]

I like the way BBedit does it actually. Though, to get it to work via ssh, you have to put a file called 'environment.plist' in '~/.MacOSX'. The plist just contains a key for the environement variable 'CVS_RSH' with the value of 'ssh'.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/Property
List-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>CVS_RSH</key>
<string>ssh</string>
</dict>
</plist>

You then have to log out and log in again for it to take affect.

You also have to have public/private key authentication set up with the remote cvs server.

How I have it set up at work is I have a Linux server I connect to via SMB, and I have the public/private keys set up. I open the file in BBEdit, and it reads the info in the CVS directory in the same directory as the file I just opened to get the CVSROOT.

Might have to do the plist thing for pathfinder too, for cvs/ssh integration.

[Anonymous]

If you're looking at revision control, I'd rather see subversion support than CVS support. I know subversion isn't "final" yet but it is at least something to consider. Subversion is so much nicer than CVS in so many ways.

If you use subversion, I'd also like to see Path Finder use subversion attributes to automatically version and recover HFS meta data in the SVN repository. This would make it much more useful as I have to do it manually right now.

Thanks!

Geoff

[Anonymous]

PLEASE, do a subversion plugin. At the moment, to be honest, i can't really see a use for Path Finder for myself, but with a Tortoise (http://www.tortoisecvs.org/ ) like subversion plugin my entire company would switch to path finder in a moment.

[neilio]

If we did include some kind of hooks into a versioning system, it definitely would take the form of a plugin that you could download to extend Path Finder.

To be honest, I already think that there's a bit of bloat in PF, and while I really do want to add these really specific, high-functionality features, every new big feature adds to that bloat.

That said, this is on "the list". Thanks, all!

[steve]

I happened to come across a post on macosxhints.com recently about doing just that. Unfortunately I can't find it anymore. However it was a hint and not an implementation.

Thinking the idea was great, I started implementing some of the CVS commands for fun, and for verifying that it can be done. How I did it works with Big Cat, which is a free contextual menu plugin from ranchero.com that allows you to include scripts in the contextual menu. Works in the Finder, works in Path Finder.

I have only implemented CVS Login, CVS Logout, CVS History and CVS Status so far, and those are minimal. The hint on macosxhints.com was showing how to set the label of files according to their cvs status, so if I can get my hands on it, I'll integrate it into what I have. I don't have much time though as I have other projects queued to be completed, so I'm wondering what to do with what I have.

I think this is a wonderful idea though, so if anyone is interested, please let me know,

Steve

[BrentN]

It would be extremely useful if PathFinder understood when files/directories were being kept in a SVN or CVS repository and could act as a client for those systems. (i.e. flag changed files, commit, update, merge, etc.)

[neilio]

I believe another Path Finder user had mentioned that he was working on a plugin for Path Finder to support CVS, though I haven't heard anything from him on this in a little while.

This is something that's on our to-do list, but at the moment at least it's kind of a low priority. There's a bunch of other features that I know people have been asking for that we want to get out as quickly as possible.

This is on the list now, Brent - it might not appear soon, but we will get to it!

[BrentN]

Hmm. If it can be done as a plug-in, that might be faster (and cooler). I'll look into that. Maybe if the user who was working on it would contact me, we could collaborate.

[Anonymous]

Is the Todo list publicly available?

[neilio]

Is the Todo list publicly available?
There isn't enough space on the web for our to-do list... :)

Just kidding. The list is really, really long, though - we've received tons of feature requests over the years, and while we keep knocking things off the list, it keeps getting longer and longer. We've been talking about posting a roadmap, but part of the problem is that features move around in priority depending on time, resources, Apple, etc.

I can see how having a rough roadmap might be useful, though; I'll see what's cooking and see what I can post here to tantalize everyone.

Neil

[bill]

You could always post the list and have people vote on which things they think are most important.

[steve]

You could always post the list and have people vote on which things they think are most important.

I vote for more speed as well as bug fixes to the Path Finder desktop functionality!

Steve

[neilio]

I can say that the speed issue, especially when copying and moving files, has been licked in the lab. File transfers in test builds here are of a magnitude faster than in 3.2.1.

We're tweaking and improving speed every release, so hopefully you should see some progress in the next release. I'll make sure that the developer looks into the desktop icon problem (it annoys me, too).

Neil

[steve]

I can say that the speed issue, especially when copying and moving files, has been licked in the lab. File transfers in test builds here are of a magnitude faster than in 3.2.1.

We're tweaking and improving speed every release, so hopefully you should see some progress in the next release. I'll make sure that the developer looks into the desktop icon problem (it annoys me, too).

I guess I should be a bit more specific.

The improved speed on file transfers will be very welcome! There's also some improvement needed with deleting files. I happened yesterday to have to delete a lot of files off of an attached firewire drive and it was taking several minutes, so I switched to Finder to do it.

Another one of the speed aspects that's already been discussed is in browser windows. They take a bit of time to open, and things are generally not as snappy as I would like them to be. Maybe it's a by-product of being more powerful than Finder, so maybe there isn't much that can be done about it.

As for the desktop, funky stuff happens. Selections have some problems, notably when a file has been created on the desktop. Usually I have to click in a browser window and then back on the desktop to get things back to normal again. Icons placed in the screen area of the Dock (but to the side of it) aren't selectable. And placement of icons seems a little erratic. But as long as the selection bugs go away, I can live with the rest!

Thanks a lot for a wonderful product!

Steve

[alexkingorg]

SCPlugin is very nice:

http://scplugin.tigris.org/

but I've had some performance problems using it with PathFinder:

http://www.cocoatech.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1840

[Durandal]

alexkingorg: I used to have those same problems with SCPlugin, but they've mysteriously disappeared. I do have a newer build than the publicly available binary though. I'd suggest downloading the source and compiling yourself. (Don't forget to change the location of the Info.plist file in the Xcode project.)

[Catfish_Man]

If we did include some kind of hooks into a versioning system, it definitely would take the form of a plugin that you could download to extend Path Finder.

To be honest, I already think that there's a bit of bloat in PF, and while I really do want to add these really specific, high-functionality features, every new big feature adds to that bloat.

That said, this is on "the list". Thanks, all!

Agreed on the plugins! The single most common reason I hear why people don't use PF it's "it's too bloated". If anything, I'd say move more of the core stuff into optional plugins.

[dgharrison]

I noticed some references in discussions taking place early last year to a plugin for subversion. I use subversion all the time at work and would love a plugin for pathfinder to save me using the terminal.

I'd use SCPlugin but it's clunky and unfinished, i don't think anyones updated the code for it this year at all, my guess is they've lost interest in the project.

[neilio]

This is something I'd love to see, also (I'm a SVN user myself) but for now we'll have to hope that someone decides to pick this project up (perhaps using our open source frameworks (http://www.cocoatech.com/opensource.php) as a starting point).

We really want to get Path Finder 4 out, so any major projects like this will have to wait at least until then.

[jem]

One thing that I would love to see in PF is subversion support, it would be so nice to have this integrated into PF.

[egrieco]

It looks like you have your schedule pretty full based on this forum but, at some point it would be nice to see some integration with Subversion to manage file revisions.

http://subversion.tigris.org/

[djgraphite]

I wouldn't mind implementing this if there is an open API for plugins. In fact that's what I would like to see.

[BrentN]

There is an API for plug-ins. It has not been updated for v.4 yet, but Neil assures us that it will be. :) Check out the Open Source page here on the Cocoatech site.

I'd REALLY REALLY like to see SVN support, since I use SVN to manage all my important code and documents

[neilio]

Yup. Once all of the dust settles on the release (and maintenance releases) we'll get to updating the open source stuff. Obviously, a lot of it has changed with the update.

Steve and I looked into implementing a SVN plugin during the 4.0 development process but decided to concentrate on the key features first before we went down this road.

The reason we were looking into this was because the SCPlugin conflicts with PF big time, and Steve had just started using SVN to manage the PF code.

If someone here wants to take a crack at it, Steve is available to help if you have any questions. Contact me off list if you like.

[djgraphite]

Yeah, I wouldn't mind giving it a go. I was actually planning on picking up the SCPlugin Project and redoing a lot of the code (since it's a mess). But if I can do it for Pathfinder (since I use that) I'll do that instead. And maybe do a finder implementation down the line.

[eviltwin]

I'd like to add my voice to SVN support. With GUI SVN stuff so bad on OSX this could be the killer feature that gets as many people as possible using PF4.

[BrentN]

With GUI SVN stuff so bad on OSX

I wouldn't quite say that. svnX (http://www.lachoseinteractive.net/en/community/subversion/svnx/) is very functional and easy to use. Right now, I use a combination of svnX, BBEdit's SVN integration, and plain old Terminal.

What I'd really like to see is deep integration - not just the ability to issue SVN commands from PF. Things like a column in list view that gives the status (M, C, ?, etc) of the file in the repository, or a badge for the file icon that gives the same information. A report that gives statistics on the number of times a file is getting modified and committed. Things that you CAN'T do with other SVN tools.

Repository management is not such a big deal for me. svnX does a good job at that, and I'd rather see svn integration in PathFinder move in a different direction.

[emory]

What I'd really like to see is deep integration - not just the ability to issue SVN commands from PF. Things like a column in list view that gives the status (M, C, ?, etc) of the file in the repository, or a badge for the file icon that gives the same information. A report that gives statistics on the number of times a file is getting modified and committed. Things that you CAN'T do with other SVN tools.


I think we may be on the same page.

I'd love to see SVN repositories as if they were a virtual filesystem via a Folder view.

So that way, I can open a 'folder' which is an SVN rep and copy files to and fro work folders.

[Yuki Shimada]

Hello.

I'm Japanese graduate school student.
Mac is main developing platform for me. I frequently use Subversion for source code rivision control too.
Already, there is Subversion frontend "SCPlugin" as Finder plugin. but developing of SCPlugin has stoped last year.
if Path Finder support CVS/Subversion control, many developers will become happy.

please support! Thanx.

[bertdevriese]

Subversion support would definately persuade me to buy a pathfinder license. And I think I'm not the only person who thinks like this!!

Please add svn support in PathFinder!!

Thanks!

[jem]

After spending a week working together with people who use Windows/Tortoise I can only once again wishing for subversion support in PF. I've no problems using the terminal but it would be very nice to be able to have a "subversion view" in PF.

[suckerpunch]

*bump*

SCPlugin is not bad in that it (used to) display icons over the top of files and folders indicating their status, and let you perform svn functions, but I prefer SVNX for commit and add.

The project is pretty dead, sadly, although there is a updated tp binary available via http://www.subversionary.org/projects/client/scplugin

I very much agree with one of the earlier posters that a killer feature for PF 4.6 would be to see the SVN status appearing in columns/icons, and being able to perform tasks straight from the menu bar.

The Big Cat idea is nice, but not really enough.

Might be worth trying to combine some of SVNX's features into Subversion (particularly like the import and export functions).

[dankelley]

Please add my name to those asking for subversion support. Now's the time for important features such as this, based on the assumption that apple will copy a lot of pathfinder goodness in the next finder ... so that pathfinder will need some new features to compete.

[craptacular]

I was checking out Path Finder for a department purchase, and thought of a suggestion for a feature that would make this a must-have product for the development community:

Built-in subversion support, bringing the features of the TortiseSVN client to OS X.

http://subversion.tigris.org/

http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/

There are a couple of subversion clients for OS X out there, but they either lack support or the ease of use that TortiseSVN has. I'm sure you'll find that building this into Path Finder would bring you a HUGE amount of new (and grateful) customers.

Thanks for the consideration.

[jason919]

I know it supports SVN now. if it is not that complicated, can we add cvs support?
have an icon overlay is the most wanted feature.

[neilio]

Sadly, adding support for CVS is fairly complicated. We went with what seems to be the most popular version control software for now, but I'll add this to the feature request list in case we discover a way to add this fairly quickly.

Neil

[jason919]

if the path finder can simply show a kind of icon overlay or "Italic" the filename when the file is changed and not committed, this can be done by reading the CVS folder.