[Reportbug-maint] Merits of VCS tools and workflows (was: VCS metadata noise)

[Sandro Tosi]

On Thu, Jul 3, 2008 at 02:31, Ben Finney <ben+debian at benfinney.id.au> wrote:
> "Sandro Tosi" <matrixhasu at gmail.com> writes:
>
>> is [using Subversion in a single line of development] really that
>> harder than the "workflow" you're using?
>
> Your example ignores the main benefit for which I use Bazaar (and for
> which others use Mercurial, git, etc.) which is: easy branching and
> sensible merging.
>
> I do all my work on features or bug fixes in "feature branches": a
> branch from trunk taken immediately on recognising that there is a
> discrete feature to be worked on. I have over a dozen of these in the
> short time I've been working on reportbug; on other projects I have
> scores of branches over time.
>
> Any time work in a particular branch reaches a point where I feel it
> would benefit trunk (or another branch), I can easily merge the work
> from that branch using Bazaar.

svn cp ...
svn merge ..

Of course, they are remote branches and not local.

I don't what to argue about what you do, as I see un-needed for such a
small project (we got, what, 30 files to manage?). Find the problem,
fix it, commit: KISS.

> Not so with Subversion: its branching is error-prone, and its merging
> is error-prone *and* primitive. Most users of Subversion that I speak
> with consider branching a sin, because merging is so awfully painful.

I don't care what other say, what are YOUR experiences with
svn+branching+problems? have you ever tried it?

>> Ben, really, use svn, there's no fighting
>
> The lack of simple branching and merging is one of the main things I
> refer to by "fighting the VCS tool". I would welcome our project
> switching to any VCS that has that feature: Bazaar, Mercurial, git.
>
> Please note, though, that I am *not* making the case to switch our VCS
> any time soon. I'm discussing this now only because you directly
> discussed the merits of one VCS over another, and I want you to
> understand why Subversion *is* painful to use compared to a modern
> VCS.

Again, what experience did you have with svn and its "poor" branching:
I used it, and had no problem at all.

> I don't expect you to convert any time soon, but I do expect you to
> see that there are real benefits I get from Bazaar that I do not get
> from Subversion. (And, presumably, that Chris gets from git that he
> does not get from Subversion.)

The only benefit I see you have is that you know bzr and don't what to
use anything else (see the reply you got on d-mentors at l.d.o): there is
no real tech advantage for reportbug to have a DVCS or a VCS.

Sandro

-- 
Sandro Tosi (aka morph, Morpheus, matrixhasu)
My website: http://matrixhasu.altervista.org/
Me at Debian: http://wiki.debian.org/SandroTosi