Re: Repository conversion

[Eric S. R. <es...@th...>]

Clark Gaylord <cla...@fa...>:
> I'm not sure what is up with your subscription posting, but I very 
> strongly concur with the substance of your suggestion regarding the 
> repository and converting to a distributed source management system.

I've started getting list mail, so whatever glitch was involved has subsided.

> My personal preference is hg, but I agree that there are lots of git 
> users out there, especially due to Linux kernel development. In my 
> experience, it is fairly easy for cvs/svn users to convert to hg; I 
> suspect it is similar for git.

The learning barrier is a little higher for git because its UI is 
rather spiky, but - broadly - yes.  Neither is very difficult, and
anything not-CVS is a sufficiently large improvement over CVS that
the transition costs get paid back in decreased hassle very quickly.

>                                 I have a few dozen developers in my 
> group and elsewhere in my organization who have largely converted to hg 
> and git from CVS and SVN over the last few years, and reactions have 
> ranged from "doesn't negatively impact me" to enthusiastic adopters. I 
> think it is fair to say that on average the more sophisticated the 
> user, the more enthusiastic the reaction has been.

That matches my experience.

> Thanks for the suggestion. Please feel free to let me know if you have 
> any further data on your ability to post and I'll try to track it down.

As I said above, no longer a problem.

I'm trying to get the Emacs conversion squared away now. I'm not in a big
hurry to do gnuplot, but I do urge your project leadership to address three
questions:

(1) Are you ready to move away from CVS?

I hope so...it's pretty broken, and it's slowly dying; there hasn't
been a maintainance release since 2008.  Projects that stick with 
CVS face increasing difficulties in attracting new devs.

(2) Where do you want to land?

As bzr is now moribund, the realistic alternatives are Subversion,
git, and hg.  But I mention Subversion only for completeness; the
advantages of distributed VCS are huge and if you're going to incur
the transition costs of moving away from CVS either git or hg would
have a much higher functional payoff.

(3) When do you want to do it?

The real question here is whether you think you need to wait until after
your next point release.  My impression from the list traffic is that
your development tempo is relatively slow, so the minor distruption from
the switchover should be tolerable at any time.
-- 
		<a href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/">Eric S. Raymond</a>