Stefan Sperling wrote on Fri, Nov 11, 2011 at 13:31:36 +0100: > If an algorithm can't do this, then a sane version control system > must flag a conflict and let a human resolve it. ... > Subversion's merge-tracking, because a cyclic merge will always cause > spurious conflicts, in the general case.
Just a note. You keep talking about "the general case" (in both of these quotes), but there is also the case that an algorithm exists that solves the 99% case --- in which case we may have the option of implementing it and flagging conflicts the rest (1%) of the time. (This is analogous to NP problems which are NP-hard only on 1% of their instances.)
