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From: "Geir Magnusson Jr." <geir@pobox.com>
To: user@couchdb.apache.org
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Subject: Re: Changing rev to _rev in view results (Was: Re: newbie question
 #1)
Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2008 08:58:23 -0500
References: <98979283-BB61-4D15-AF05-196979FA42BC@pobox.com>
 <e2111bbb0812280526q2766d197ld38f250d25d8e890@mail.gmail.com>
 <49C5583B-254D-4D4D-A4F7-AD7306E758F1@gmail.com>
 <A67E2901-CD92-4C24-B4E3-7955F2477766@apache.org>
 <8A2A146E-F011-4502-9DD9-336300392CDC@apache.org>
 <0743DF91-9015-43DD-9A0F-7E79D6DF4632@gmail.com>

That rule would have been perfectly clear to me as a newbie.

+1

geir

On Dec 29, 2008, at 8:55 AM, Antony Blakey wrote:

>
> On 29/12/2008, at 11:11 PM, Damien Katz wrote:
>
>> The problem was there where other reserved fields in documents that  
>> started with underscore, but in other places the fields wouldn't  
>> have an underscore. Keep track of which fieldname had underscores  
>> and where became confusing. The rule was changed to be simpler to  
>> understand and deal with.
>
> A simpler rule is: _rev is the name no matter where it appears, same  
> with _id. I'd go so far as say that this kind of rule is so  
> fundamental to our idea of identity and naming, that it doesn't even  
> count as a rule. And there had better be a really good reason to  
> introduce a rule contrary to such an strongly implicit and intrinsic  
> concept.
>
> And as far as 'Keeping track of which fieldname had underscores", it  
> would seem that the current situation is the worst, because you have  
> to keep track not based on identity e.g. _rev and _id, but rather on  
> context, which is a dynamic and more intellectually demanding  
> concept than semantic identity. Furthermore, in this scheme, names  
> must be mapped under structural transformation (such as copying the  
> _id and _rev fields from one context to another), which complicates  
> generic transformations.
>
> IMO the name isn't "rev" with sometimes an underscore, rather the  
> name IS "_rev". Same with "_id".
>
> A single name for a concept, lexically consistent, is less cognitive  
> load both initially and on an ongoing basis.
>
> Antony Blakey
> -------------
> CTO, Linkuistics Pty Ltd
> Ph: 0438 840 787
>
> The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of  
> comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge  
> and controversy.
>  -- Martin Luther King
>
>