-----Original Message----- From: Aaron Spike [mailto:aaron@...749...] Sent: maandag 17 maart 2008 13:27
one of the things I noticed is that any use of the log functionality in TortoiseSVN was unbearably slow because it requires network access. A DVCS stores all this information locally, so the logs become much more useful and accessible. I think you'll appreciate this.
This does indeed sound nice. So, DVCS stores *all* info offline? (A log without diffs is useless for me) Although I am used to having 100Mbps internet, I don't find SVN slow on my current wireless connection (don't know the exact speed... it's cable. 2Mbps or something). But in any case, an offline history might be nice I guess.
I really don't understand why you think that a DVCS would cause people to practice any worse VCS hygiene than now. DVCS gives you freedom to commit in smaller logical blocks. As a person who worked with branches in SVN extensively you should understand the utility of this. You likely committed much more frequently on your branch than you would have committed to trunk. The diffs were smaller and easier to read. The commit messages were more granular and more meaningful. And when working on a branch svn update is equivalent to merge. You didn't merge for every commit. You had the freedom to work out an idea while committing bite-sized pieces and dealing with the integration problems when you chose to. But you still dealt with them.
About my gsoc2007 svn experience/method: the frequent committing was mainly because of switching PC's actually and was possible because I was the only one committing to the branch. I think it is actually very unclear to commit in small chunks. Especially for reviewing or trying to understand what was needed for certain functionality. Perhaps the diff comments were more meaningful, but that's because it is more diffcomment text, because it is only meaningful in the context of all the other commits. Reverting one of those commits would be useless, you'd have to revert 10 successive ones. When people want more meaningful diffcomments, I think we should write longer diffcomments instead of doing more commits.
I am very afraid I will loose all nice features that SVN/Tortoise gives me now, without gaining anything myself. When reading TortoiseBZR: "TODO: Enable add, merge, log, revert, etc context menu options." :'(
Making your own local "branch" offline is already very easy btw: just copy your inkscape checkout, including already compiled files for fine speedy rebuild. It's what I sometimes do when working on a large thing for multiple days.
I think, grass is always much greener on the neighbour's lawn.
Regards, Johan