Hmm. There are modules on CPAN for CVS and RCS called VCS::RCS and VCS::CVS. It may be that they are native implementations or it may that they require the use of the binaries. Either way there is an argument for using them. This is especially the case if they are already fast implementations, and, if they are not then there is an argument for making them into fast implementations ;^)

-- MartinCleaver - 22 Mar 2001

A quick look at the code suggets this is a wrapper around the rcs commands/executables. There's almost no documentation and it's not clear that all features used by TWiki are supported.

-- JohnTalintyre - 22 Mar 2001

Actually the most useful module in CPAN for RCS is http://search.cpan.org/search?dist=Rcs. It has some native code for parsing the header and 'desc' fields. Pretty much everything is wrapped around the executables though. I've been looking around for a while and the only other useful perl diff/rcs tools around are the Perl Power Tools (http://language.perl.com/ppt/), specific perl versions of diff and patch.

The main thing I'm trying to sort out at the moment is: i) how stable the rcsfile format is between different machines, ii) how stable the rcsfile delta node spec is between different OS.

Regardless I don't thing the VCS::* modules are of much use.

-- NicholasLee - 22 Mar 2001

Interesting concept though. If Twiki wanted to support both RCS and CVS it will have to create a layer to abstract them away. Perhaps your code to do that can become the new VCS:: modules, perhaps using the RCS modules as an implementation.

I am not suggesting that you would write a full implementation, just enough for what you need in a place that other people can find it.

-- MartinCleaver - 22 Mar 2001

Have you been following my commits to the cvs recently? Particularily the experiment branch I created last weekend. At the moment I'm stuck on a first attempt at a clean API, but once its there it should be pretty easy to add a CVS storage module.

I've been studying the source code for rcs a little bit to understand how it works, with the view to pulling some of its code and creating a perl library. Its interesting to note that it actually seems spawnv a call to "/usr/bin/diff" itself, saving the output to a temp file. I'm trying to figure if this is true all the time, plus how it deals with the patch side of things. Particular since patch doesn't handle rcs-style patch deltas at all.

-- NicholasLee - 22 Mar 2001

I've not been following the code changes, no time. For work I am committed to having something working reliably such that someone else can support it. So, I just take the latest release and try to contribute by providing ideas.

-- MartinCleaver - 23 Mar 2001