Re: should we use bazaar?

On Thu, 2008-06-26 at 08:02 -0500, Jeff Brown wrote:

> I have not used bazaar but I am using Git for everything now.  Even on
> projects where I am stuck with SVN, I use Git to clone the SVN repo
> and from my end, it is all Git.  I don't think I have a single .svn/
> directory on my machine at this point.  ;)

If all you want is a Subversion client that beats Subversion then Git is
certainly a possibility -- but I still prefer Bazaar.  My problem with
Git is that there is no consistency to the command set, the
fragmentation is dreadful.  I would liken using Git for version control
to trying to write Grails in IBM 370 assembly language -- certainly it
is possible but would you really want to do it?

> Using this approach doesn't give me all the benefits of Git but it
> does give me some that I really like.  I commit on airplanes all the
> time (disconnected commits).  I have the entire repo history local,
> which is really nice for a number of reasons.  I can stage commits
> locally before pushing them all up the central repo.

This is what is wrong with Subversion, its centralized.  This is what is
right about Bazaar, Git and Mercurial, they are distributed.  Bazaar and
Git can interwork with a Subversion repository, as far as I am aware
Mercurial cannot, at least not yet.

> I expect bazaar, mercurial and the rest of the ilk do a lot of these
> same things.  Git is the only one I have really dug into and I really
> really like it.

I am completely ambivalent about Git.  It is bitty, complex, you can
destroy your repository very easily indeed, but if your workflow is
identical to the Linux development workflow then it works well.  Git is
the tool you need if you are trying to emulate Torvalds way of working.

When it comes down to it though whilst the master copy of Groovy is held
in Subversion there is nothing wrong different people using different
systems to work with their own branches.  Of course if people want to
collaborate they need to agree on which tool to avoid fighting with
Subversions inept (aka non-existent) support for branches and merging.
Subversion is a superb versioned filestore, it is now clearly not
adequate as a project version control system.  Whichever way Groovy
goes, Bazaar, Git or Mercurial, things can only get better.

I vote for Bazaar.  I think I have convinced Ben to support Bazaar as
well as Git and Mercurial as Codehaus realizes that Subversion is not
the tool needed for best support of the project.  This would mean we
don't have to move to using Launchpad.
--
Russel.
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Dr Russel Winder                 Partner

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