Re: [Hardhats] KIDS-VC: KIDS version control on github

[Sam Habiel]

FYI: I wrote https://github.com/shabiel/KIDS-VC 12 (!) years ago. Your code seems to have used a lot of my ideas. You should at least call it something different to distinguish it from my project, and credit me for the format that you are using. I think you should just extended my project, since it's M native, and it potentially can work with KIDS.

The VistA Imaging Group has a Java based version, but that one does version control by creating a KIDS build for each component. I never liked that.

--Sam

On Thu, Apr 23, 2026 at 10:01 AM rrichards <rmr...@gmail.com> wrote:

Purpose: Put VistA KIDS distribution files under git version control. Decompose .KID patches into per-component files you can diff, review, branch, and merge. Reassemble back to .KID for deployment.

Audience: VistA developers, site IRMs, patch maintainers, and anyone working with .KID artifacts in source control.

Current state: stable for WorldVistA/VistA flavor. Validated at scale — 100.00% round-trip pass on 2,406 real KIDS patches (3,566,277 subscripts). Full test results in §10.

User Guide: https://github.com/rafael5/vista-meta/blob/main/docs/kids-vc-guide.md

For the history of how kids-vc was built, see  kids-vc-background-dev.md.  For the KIDS installation process, see code-model-guide.md §3.3.

--
--
http://groups.google.com/group/Hardhats
To unsubscribe, send email to Hardhats+u...@googlegroups.com

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Hardhats" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to hardhats+u...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/hardhats/5998a9a2-d942-4d61-9d8e-458f49a133e8n%40googlegroups.com.

[rrichards]

Background and Development:

https://github.com/rafael5/vista-meta/blob/main/docs/kids-vc-background-dev.md

Claude, et al examined all prior art of KIDS verson control  projects (SKIDS tools  by three authors with three different languages - all abandoned), and the  XPDK2VC project (works, but not completed).  "TO CONTINUE HERE!!!" is in the code itsself.  kids-vc is a Python port of XPDK2VC's architecture, plus features neither predecessor had:

• DD-embedded MUMPS extraction — input transforms, xref SET/KILL, computed-field code extracted as per-field .m annotations
• ZWR 3-way merge driver — git-native entry-level merges for .zwr files
• Corpus-verified — 100% round-trip pass rate on all 2,406 real WorldVistA .KID patches (~3.5M subscripts)  

User Guide

https://github.com/rafael5/vista-meta/blob/main/docs/kids-vc-guide.md

Why not mumps?

For things that are not internal, operational or transactional in VistA,  but rather work outside VistA at the level of the filesystem (which by definition is what github requires)  then any language will work fine.   So we leveraged the Python binding to YDB, which made the development and validation at scale  (100.00% round-trip pass on 2,406 real KIDS patches (3,566,277 subscripts) rapid, reliable (all unit tested / test-driven-design), and straightforward