I’ve just started to tinker with pijul. Tried it out (but not yet with a real project), read the documentation and skimmed over the paper (my knowledge of category theory is limited, but it’s enough to get the gist I think).
Before I’m to familiar, I’ll try to write down my impressions about the vocabulary and how it matches my mental model.
My mental model is: I can make changes (patches) to a project (repository). A repostate is just starting with nothing and applying a bunch of changes. It’s intuitively clear that changes can or cannot be independent of other changes. Also, the difference between states is also just a set of changes.
I think the biggest stumbling block is to understand what a patch is. I’m not a native speaker, but the metaphor is unclear to me. Imo it makes sense to “patch software”: There is a hole (security vulnerability) and we patch it up (issuing an update that fixes that). But I’m not patching up a project until it’s complete and patches do not really depend on each other. And what is “recording a patch” supposed to mean?
I know that the documentation explains patches as changes on several occasions. But that alone could be a sign that it could be a good idea to call them “changes”, “edits” or something in that direction.
Then, repostate. I find it a little bit clunky, but it’s fairly descriptive. What I don’t understand are branches in that context. In my mental model, a branch is just a point in the development of the project, the application of all changes that lead to that point. So people can branch of from another path of development etc. So, the branchness of a branch is a structural property.
But the defining property of a branch seems to be that is labeled. For me, when a pijul branch is a branch, then repostate must be a branch too.
Little nitpick: I associate the command “record” with “start a recording” while pijul is always recording and the command is ending it. Maybe “report” would be clearer? Idk.
Another nitpick: “blame”. It’s more of a personal thing but for me the snark of the git blame command symbolises everything that is wrong with git. From the hostile community that it came from to the hostile user interface it has.
Just to be clear, my understanding of pijul could be wrong and this is just my impression. Also, naming things is hard 