Chris@494: {Terminology}
Chris@494: 
Chris@494: What is a repository?
Chris@494: 
Chris@494: When you use a version control system to keep track of your changes to
Chris@494: a set of files, there are two different concepts you're dealing with:
Chris@494: a _working copy_ and a _repository_.
Chris@494: 
Chris@494: A _working copy_ is just a folder with your project's files in it.  It
Chris@494: contains the versions of the files that you are working with now.
Chris@494: 
Chris@494:  * EasyMercurial's "My Work" tab shows you which files you have been working on in your current working copy.
Chris@494: 
Chris@494: A _repository_ is a record of the entire history of your project. When
Chris@494: change something in the working copy, you can then commit it to the
Chris@494: repository and your change gets added to the history.
Chris@494: 
Chris@494:  * EasyMercurial's "History" tab shows you the changes that have been committed to your project's history in its repository.
Chris@494: 
Chris@494: You can also go back and grab an older version from the repository if
Chris@494: you find you need it.  (If you do this, then the working copy will be
Chris@494: updated so as to contain that older version rather than the most
Chris@494: recent one.)
Chris@494: 
Chris@494: Older centralised version control systems use a separate database for
Chris@494: the repository.  But with a distributed version control system such as
Chris@494: Mercurial, the repository -- the entire history of your project files
Chris@494: -- is stowed into a special folder inside the working copy on your
Chris@494: hard drive.  Every change you commit gets added to the history in that
Chris@494: hidden folder. (The history is compressed, so it doesn't take as much
Chris@494: space as you might imagine.)
Chris@494: 
Chris@494: The term _remote repository_ simply refers to a repository related to
Chris@494: your local one, but stored on another computer somewhere else.  Often
Chris@494: this may be a "master copy" of your project stored on a server
Chris@494: elsewhere, which you and your collaborators can use to keep up with
Chris@494: each other's work, or which you can use to make your work public, or
Chris@494: simply use as a private backup.
Chris@494: