Jon A. Cruz wrote:
The GUI tool problem is lack of file level tools, as opposed to whole branch tracking. TortoiseBZR will give you file operations when you right-click in the desktop windows, but that only solves some use cases. Each time I've used Tortoise in the past I would also have to install TkCVS to get the rest of the GUI functionality I need.
I'm not sure that GUI tools are necessary to use something. They can drastically improve productivity in many cases, but I don't think they're fundamental, especially for something like a VCS. We're talking about programmers here; are Windows programmers not capable of using the command line? Our Windows build tool is command line only! On top of that, if you are not a project admin, you're only going to work on one or two branches most of the time, so it should be completely manageable without a GUI.
I would opt for the following solution: the students should use Bazaar in conjunction with Launchpad, while the rest can use SVN as usual until we decide that Bazaar is ready for general use. (This option of a peaceful transition is another argument in favor of bzr.) Merges of student code would be done by using Launchpad's bzr-svn support. Ted Gould already works in this manner and could provide the needed know-how.
Regards, Krzysztof Kosiński