These days I focused my efforts on some usability aspects regarding the TimeLine.
In the previous implementation, the TimeLine showed all the buttons needed to manage it in the same dock widget; thus enforcing the belief of a minor component that is not our goal.
With the commit I performed today, the “New SavePoint” button is placed now in the Workflow dock widget; so the user now consider SavePoints ( and the TimeLine ) as a key component. When creating a new project, the TimeLine will show only a disabled button, which suggests the developer to click on “New SavePoint” to init the TimeLine. This is how the interface looks now:
Moreover, the “Section” button, used to perform some important operation, has been moved from the bottom, to the top of the dock widget; that’s because its related actions are frequently performed and, if there are lots of SavePoints, the developer is forced to scroll down the TimeLine until reach that button. So it’s more useful to place it on the top.
[Po]lentino's blog 
Hi,
The TimeLine sounds great! Kudos for not trying to build a new VCS yourself!
Is it possible to change the backend (for using Mercurial or Bazaar instead of git)?
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Thank you Arne =)
I’m not a Mercurial/Bazaar expert, but I think it is possible to move forward them by modifying about 15% of the actual code.
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Do you call it via the commandline/shell?
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No, every git command is executed by clicking on a menu item showed from the TimeLine dock widget, so no need to interact with the console.
Note that i don’t support all git commands, but only the most common/useful ( and, by the way, the list is not complete yet 😛 ), because since PlasMate is targeted to beginner developers, i have to provide few but effective operations available 😉
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What I meant is: Does PlasMate call the commandline git client?
If it does, it should be quite easy to provide different VCS systems by doing simple string replacing 🙂
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Oh yes, it calls git by using a KProcess instance 🙂
So yeah, changing the string from “git” to “bzr” o whatever and changing accordingly the parameters passed ( plus some other modifications ), and you are done 🙂
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Great!
Then the adaption can be done by anyone who knows the other VCSs, even if he doesn’t know the PlasMate codebase.
Besides: I love the idea of just calling the history “Timeline”. It sounds immediately understandable.
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Thank you again for your appreciation =)
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