[Reportbug-maint] VCS metadata noise (was: [Reportbug-commits] r559 - in (4 files))

[Ben Finney]

"Sandro Tosi" <matrixhasu at gmail.com> writes:

> what the hell is this?? More than 100 lines for what??

Largely cruft, caused by metadata being stored in the Subversion
repository. As you know, I'm discussing the issue with the Bazaar
developers.

> Ben, please stop annoying us with this un-needed commit entries,
> that waste time, space, bandwidth for the sake of nothing more that
> let you use a VCS over a VCS for absolutely no reason.

One good reason in this case: I was able to much more quickly address
the bug (#488928) than if I had to fool around with Subversion.

> Learning SVN is matter of minutes...

An exaggeration, but yes, Subversion isn't difficult to *learn*. What
it is is difficult to *use* compared to modern VCS tools.

I've learned it to the point where I can use it, as evidenced by
merging in the 'reportbuglib' branch. However, as also evidenced by
that experience, I'm much less sure of a good result if I use
Subversion.

So, for this particular bad bug, I went with the tool that let me fix
the bug, rather than fighting the VCS tool. My apologies to everyone
for the resulting noise, but fixing the bug quickly and without
distraction by poor tools seemed worth the tradeoff.


I do intend to increase my use of the Subversion client on the
'reportbug' project, in the interest of avoiding such noisy commits.
But the need for caution against its design flaws, and double-work,
slows me down when using Subversion compared to a modern VCS tool, so
you'll see less work less often from me if I do.

If I remember rightly, Chris is also avoiding the Subversion client
(You're using 'git, right, Chris?). Perhaps it's time we discuss
moving the whole project away from Subversion and to a better modern
VCS.

-- 
 \     “Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do |
  `\        it from religious conviction.” —Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), |
_o__)                                                   Pensées, #894. |
Ben Finney