[PATCH 0 of 3] Alternative graph web interface to better handle named branches

[Matt Mackall]

On Tue, 2010-08-17 at 01:22 +0200, Francesco Degrassi wrote:
> serve/graph: Alternative graph web interface to better handle named branches
> 
> The current implementation of the "graph" webcommand in the "hg serve" web interface works, but is not very easy and expressive; in particular, repos with many named branches are not really easy to visualize.
> These changesets add a new webcommand to the web interface, plot, which is a revised implementation of what "graph" currently does.
> 
> Example:
>  with graph (currently in mercurial): http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/9715/graph.gif
>  with plot (my proposed alternative): http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/6246/plots.gif
> 
> The main features are:
>  * each named branch is assigned a separate plot column and color

We have some crazy people with dozens of named branches, so the column
thing might get problematic. But they'll probably have issues with the
current graph anyway. Also restricting activity on a named branch to a
narrow column might also be an issue - even on the hg repo, we can get
several columns wide on the default branch.

>  * columns and colors are reused when a branch is closed or marked inactive

Good.

>  * anonymous branches are plotted as part of the relative named branch

Perhaps we could have shades of the named branch colors to indicate
anonymous branches?

>  * named branches are plotted to the right of their parent branch
>  * a set of "pivot" named branches can be configured, these will always be plotted and other branches will be positioned relative to these; this is useful for branches like "stable", "release", etc

Can you tell us more about this?

>  * named branches are labeled on the plot

Not sure about this piece.

-- 
Mathematics is the supreme nostalgia of our time.