To me that seems messier than a new branch. For one, how are others to know my files are test/scratch/feature branch files? I'd have to use a naming scheme, and some kind of other signal to make sure nobody imports them before they're ready or mistakes them for deployable files - and at that point I'm just replicating a branch!
> and at that point I'm just replicating a branch!
Yes. My entire point is that you can always replicate branches with actual, explicit files, and that this is a good thing to do because files are (very often) better than branches. Files plus some editor discipline are essentially equivalent to branches.
Files+discipline are better than branches, according to standard unix philosophy: (1) everything is a file, (2) protocol not policy.
