strange phases order (public < draft < secret)

[Matt Mackall]

On Fri, 2014-01-03 at 20:33 +0300, 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?

Just about every display of changesets shows more recent changes above
older ones. Also, earlier revisions have lower numbers. So down = lower
= older = public is the natural direction.

Originally, the analogy for phases was frozen vs liquid, and thus there
was an obvious temperature component to the analogy as well.

Evolution is a concept that came later (and is not even quite yet part
of hg, while phases have been a core feature for years).

$ hg help phases | grep evolution
$

-- 
Mathematics is the supreme nostalgia of our time.