With the new patch features from 1.7 would it make sense to implement this feature internally as a stored patch with some extra changes to the client to allow exporting the shelved changes as a patch and more obviously shelve and unshelve?
As a TortoiseSVN user I'm thinking such feature could be added to an individual client as a internally managed patch without any changes to the core SVN API. This being said, client side API changes would make it more widely adoptable and consistent. My guess is that with or without this feature, clients will like grow this feature post 1.7 because of the patch enhancements.
