[Python-Dev] PEP: Migrating the Python CVS to Subversion

[Donovan Baarda]

On Mon, 2005-08-08 at 15:49, Trent Mick wrote:
> One feature I like in Perforce (which Subversion doesn't have) is the
> ability to have pending changesets. A changeset is, as with subversion,
> something you check-in atomically. Pending changesets in Perforce allow
> you to (1) group related files in a source tree where you might be
> working on multiple things at once to ensure and (2) to build a change
> description as you go. In a large source tree this can be useful for
> separating chunks of work.

This seems like a poor workaround for crappy branch/merge support. 

I'm new to perforce, but the pending changesets seem dodgey to me... you
are accumulating changes gradually without recording any history during
the process... ie, no checkins until the end.

Even worse, perforce seems to treat clients like "unversioned branches",
allowing you to review and test pending changesets in other clients.
This supposedly allows people to review/test each others changes before
they are committed. The problem is, since these changes are not
committed, there is no firm history of what what was reviewed/tested vs
what gets committed... ie they could be different.

Having multiple different pending changesets in one large source tree
also feels like a workaround for high client overheads. Trying to
develop and test a mixture of different changes in one source tree is
asking for trouble... they can interact.

Maybe I just haven't grokked perforce yet... which might be considered a
black mark against it's learning curve :-)

For me, the logical way to group a collection of changes is in a branch.
This allows you to commit and track history of the collection of
changes. You check out each branch into different directories and
develop/test them independantly. The branch can then be reviewed and
merged when it is complete.

-- 
Donovan Baarda <abo at minkirri.apana.org.au>