strange phases order (public < draft < secret)

[Pierre-Yves David]

On 01/03/2014 09:33 AM, anatoly techtonik wrote:
> I really don't get why changeset evolution phases
> are inverted in Mercurial. You start with secret and
> draft changesets, which then are evolved into public.
>
> So, logicall the "public" is "higher" on the evolution
> chain. Why is it the reverse?

You are going to highest energy phases (most volatile, most subject to 
change) to lowest energy (most solid and immutable).

At some earlier point of design the idea was called "liquid changeset" 
and there was

- liquid changesets (draft)
- frozen/solid changesets (public)


Another useful property of this nomenclature is that public phase is 
'0'. so, null phase == immutability. and phase value can be read as a 
flag field. Moreover, it is more pausible to add new phases after 
secret. as those would be local only phases. New local only phases are 
possible, New exchanged phase are not possible for backward 
compatibility reason.

-- 
Pierre-Yves