A translation tool helps volunteers revise interface strings. Its maintainers already use hg scripts. They need to distinguish revisable work from shared history without migrating that workflow to Git.
How: work toward a solution
Commit a wording fix locally as draft. Push to the team’s publishing repository: that change becomes public on both sides. Check its phase before rewriting history.
A wording fix crosses a publishing boundary from draft to public
Translation tool · sharing phases
The same change. A new sharing phase.
draft
01 / Local wording fix
hg commit · Default new-commit phase
Translation: clarify the Save label
02 / hg push ↓
Remote configured as publishing
public
03 / Shared history
Public on the local and remote repositories
Same wording fix · check before rewriting
Public phase ≠ public access. These phases describe sharing history, not repository permissions.
What: the concept
Mercurial is distributed version control. Phases track sharing, not access permissions: public does not mean an internet-visible repository. Non-publishing remotes can exchange drafts. Git may fit better when required integrations expect Git.
Both Mercurial and Git support local commits and distributed collaboration. Prefer retaining Mercurial when existing hg automation and team knowledge have value. If required review services accept only Git, compare migration effort explicitly. SVN instead records commits centrally; P4 may fit established binary-asset workflows.
02Applications
The translation tool records a wording fix in a local repository. With default draft commits and a publishing remote, pushing advances its phase to public. A non-publishing collaboration repository can retain draft changes. Public records sharing status; private access controls remain a separate concern.
03Implementation & cautions
Check remote publishing configuration and the phase before using history-editing extensions. Secret changes are not normally exchanged, but phases are not an authorization system or secret store. Verify supported extensions and host compatibility. Test translated text conflicts and history migration with a copy before changing the team’s tools.
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