Re: Distributed SCM in Gnome (Was: Git vs SVN (was: Can we improve things?))

[Behdad Esfahbod <behdad behdad org>]

On Wed, 2007-09-12 at 12:10 +0200, Josselin Mouette wrote:
> Le mardi 11 septembre 2007 �2:37 +0200, Soeren Sandmann a �it :
> > This is true. There are issues with git, most importantly that it was
> > written by someone for whom usability is not, um, a core competence,
> > but is has a couple of killer features over CVS/SVN:
> > 
> > * The abilty to commit offline
> 
> You can already do it with svk or git-svn.

Like a wise man once said:  you could as well drill a hole into your
knee and insert a screw to adjust the desired pain level more
precisely. ;-)

> > * Bisect, as Behdad says
> 
> This is definitely a killer feature, but there is no design limitation
> preventing implementation of such a feature in subversion. A working
> svn-bisect script would definitely be a worthwhile contribution.

Ya, you need to be sitting on top of the GNOME SVN server for it to work
though.

> > There are also a couple of non-killer improvements:
> > 
> > * Performance: git is consistently fast; svn is slow.
> 
> It should be noted this is only the case for git, not for other DSCMs.
> Furthermore, svk also noticeably improves performance on svn
> repositories.

What's worse than a broken tool is using another tool to unbreak it.

> As several people already stated, most of git's improvements are already
> available to those who love git thanks to git-svn. It strikes me that we
> would actually lose svn's killer feature (simplicity) if the whole
> repository is migrated to git.

No, git-svn only facilitates git-bisect.  Almost no other benefit of git
is readily available: you have to flatten your branch before pushing it
to SVN.  It doesn't fetch all branches.  You can't freely push and pull
branches with other developers.  In short: it's very, very, fragile.
It's easier to do something wrong than right.


-- 
behdad
http://behdad.org/

"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little
 Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
        -- Benjamin Franklin, 1759