[copyleft-next] Redline

[Pamela Chestek]

If this is inappropriate for the full list then reply separately, but I
thought I'd start by asking here as part of the further exploration of the
Github-Gitorious kerfuffle.

Why is redline so objectionable? It is simply another form of version
control and is available in LibreOffice.

My challenges with Github were that I could not figure out how to compare
my last revision to anything but the most previous commit. In a case where
all I had changed from the previous commit was an uppercase letter to a
lowercase, that wasn't particularly helpful. In order to compare my latest
iteration to the base document I was revising, I took copies and compared
them in LibreOffice because I couldn't figure out how to do it any other
way. I concede I don't know if there was a way to do it if I was using Git
proper and knew how to use it, though.

The other challenge was changing my mind. There was one addition I made in
one commit, then changed my mind and took it out, which was a second
commit.  In a LibreOffice redline it would have simply disappeared. I
suppose you can argue that it shouldn't, and you should have insight into
my every keystroke, but I think that's overkill when it's a contemplative
process.

I found the commit process apparently requires more forethought about when
to commit that what I exercised (sorry Richard). Ideally one would commit
at logical iterations, but I don't find it very easy to do that when
revising a text document, where I often jump around and change my mind
after I've read and absorbed more. Richard broke out my changes into
logical issues after the fact, but they didn't get created so logically.

I also find a redlined document no harder to read than a version
comparison, it's pretty clear what's what (unless you have too many cooks
before accepting changes). It's also easy to do, just turn it on.

I appreciate that redline is incompatible with Git and so is inappropriate
for this project. But I am a bit puzzled by what seems to be antipathy to
redline in general, which I just see as another form of version control and
perhaps better suited to text documents that the Git functionality.

Pam