[Python-Dev] Looking for VCS usage scenarios

[Barry Warsaw]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

On Nov 4, 2008, at 12:21 AM, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:

> (2) New repo formats are added frequently, and taking advantage of new
>    features often requires upgrading your repo format.  So-called
>    lightweight checkouts can be especially annoying as they involve
>    leaving the history on the server, making distributed work
>    problematic.

It should be noted that this is a client-side choice.  I can choose to  
have a heavyweight (i.e. full or partial) local revision history and  
work in a distributed way, while you choose to do a lightweight  
checkout and use the repository much as you currently use Subversion.   
The server side or master repo doesn't care.

I like that Bazaar has this option, though I personally don't use it,  
nor would I teach/introduce it early on, unless I was specifically  
trying to guide existing Subversion users into the world of dvcs.   
OTOH, I know people who like this style of working very much.

> (3) Bazaar is very good at supporting the kind of refactoring that
>    involves lots of file/directory renames and/or splitting/combining.

My understanding is that Bazaar tracks changes to directories whereas  
Mercurial (and git?) do not.  According to the Mercurial FAQs I've  
read, they claim this only affects empty directories.

> (4) Bazaar is claimed to have especially good merging support.

And multiple ones at that.  The default almost always DTRT, but what's  
nice is that if you do see an occasional text conflict, you can  
usually re-merge with a different algorithm to clear things up.

- -Barry

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (Darwin)

iQCVAwUBSRBXVnEjvBPtnXfVAQJh3AP+IMnvHQSvuTwQwYCx1zyposZcbF7JBIFc
fkbnLBZ1Yn4JDiwPCDthzP2C0h8TAnshjeEPmr+On3sy+DizSxAT73jjhoCY3KoN
lqZEaJQ4pGpUg6PNeRjHYxmYQ8vjNhM3gVBXRYjMlEuFG+S5vxhxqcVKvNEjKdl3
vVErzP69D1o=
=zcux
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----