Compiler updating user code

[Manu]

On 14 March 2014 22:07, John Colvin <john.loughran.colvin at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Friday, 14 March 2014 at 11:44:21 UTC, Daniel Murphy wrote:
>
>> "Manu" <turkeyman at gmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:mailman.105.1394774104.23258.digitalmars-d at puremagic.com...
>>
>>  So it comes up fairly regularly that people suggest that the compiler
>>> should have a mode where it
>>> may update user code automatically to assist migration to new compiler
>>> versions.
>>>
>>> I'm personally against the idea, and Walter certainly doesn't like it,
>>> but it occurred to me that a
>>> slight variation on this idea might be awesome.
>>>
>>> Imagine instead, an '-update' option which instead of modifying your
>>> code, would output a .patch
>>> file containing suggested amendments wherever it encountered deprecated
>>> code...
>>> The user can then take this patch file, inspect it visually using their
>>> favourite merge tool, and pick
>>> and choose the bits that they agree or disagree with.
>>>
>>> I would say this approach takes a dubious feature and turns it into a
>>> spectacular feature!
>>>
>>
>> If you're using version control, these are practically the same thing.
>>
>
> Yeah, I don't understand why it matters whether it's a change or a patch.
> Either way, all changes become patches in VCS. Who would let an automated
> tool make source changes without using VC, or at least having made a manual
> backup?
>

Because Walter is acutely allergic to the idea of a tool that modifies your
source code. I might also have uncommitted changes, and not particularly
feel like stashing them for the moment (less easy in other VCS's).
I might also not want to apply all the changes, only some of them. Surely
it's easier to merge the ones I want after visual approval, than reverting
the ones I don't want after having gone to the effort of stashing my local
changes to make a clean slate to work with...

Also, making a direct change allows the user to use whatever diff software
> / version control software they like.
>

I'm not sure how a patch file restricts them to a particular merge program
or VCS...
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