[Python-ideas] Using only patches for pulling changes in hg.python.org

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Nick Coghlan writes:

 > The mental conversion Spolsky was talking about was specifically from
 > SVN to Hg, the same one we're looking at. A DVCS isn't written in
 > terms of file revisions the way SVN is, it's written in terms of a
 > directed acyclic graph of changesets.

Sure.  But I think Antoine's right.  So is the Python workflow.  At
any given time, you've got dozens of patches in active development in
people's workspaces and on the tracker.  As they get baked, you pull
in a coherent set and commit it.

Here's what Joel says:

    In Subversion, you might think, "bring my version up to date with
    the main version" or "go back to the previous version."

    In Mercurial, you think, "get me Jacob's change set" or "let's
    just forget that change set."

While it's certainly true that to work with Python's Subversion repo
you need to translate to terms of a fairly linear progression of
versions, I don't see people thinking that way about the workflow.  I
think people do expect commits to the svn repo to be coherent, and by
and large they are.

I personally expect this migration to make a big difference to the
core committers, because it gives them that much more flexibility.
Casual committers and pull-only tester types may have some trouble
adjusting, but I really don't think it will be that bad.