[dna-dev] Version control poll

[Daniel Florian]

I vote to keep the SVN repository. SVN is the standard and most everyone is familiar with it. The Eclipse SVN plugin is mature and generally works very well (though it would be nice to be able to have a hierarchical root project). And, per Randall, Git has a nice way of dealing with SVN for those who want to use Git with an SVN repository.

I personally avoid the command-line as much as possible. I much rather look at an Eclipse View than a terminal window when trying to figure out things. I like an IDE to be an IDE and Eclipse does a pretty good job.

I've gotten by without using local branches so far and don't think I will all of sudden start using them just because we are made to use Git. So if that is the main reason to switch I'm not buying it.

There is no need to rush the adoption of Git. As Randall says this can be done later if the need becomes more justified. Let the Git tooling mature. Let other projects take the credit for moving to Git first.

To be fair I don't know enough about the Git Eclipse plugin. Is it stable? Can it be used just like the SVN plugin (i.e., check-in, check-out, diffs, create/delete projects, etc)? If the answer is yes, I might be more open to it.

I don't see the compelling need to force everyone off the standard way (which is pretty darn good).

My vote is keep SVN.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Randall Hauch" <rhauch at redhat.com>
To: "JBoss DNA" <dna-dev at lists.jboss.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 8, 2009 1:46:35 PM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central
Subject: [dna-dev] Version control poll

As part of the rebranding that we'll be doing soon, we're going to switch version control repositories from our current SVN location () to another repository.  We can very easily stay on the same SVN instance, or we can take the opportunity to switch to Git.  Of course, it isn't "now or never".  Even though the rebranding point would be an excellent time to switch (since we have to move repositories anyway), it isn't the only time we could switch to Git.  So if it's not now, I suspect we'll make the switch within six months (or so).

I'd like to hear what people have to say on the matter.

Personally, I've been using Git locally for many months, and couldn't imagine going back.  I simply love the ability to have local branches (that are almost always named for the JIRA issue) and to switch between them very easily.  And I'm not even benefiting from the ability to push these branches out anywhere else.  The Git Eclipse plugin works very well for me, but I'm very used to the command-line and don't expect much from my Eclipse Team UI functionality anymore.  (I really just want Eclipse to tell me which files are changed locally, which the plugin does very well - everything else I use the command line for because its far easier IMO.)

However, I do have several concerns.  One of them is whether this raises or lowers the bar for people downloading the source, submitting patches, or for becoming new committers.  For people that only have SVN experience, I think this will dramatically raise the bar because Git will be a big unknown for them.  On the other hand, Git is becoming extremely popular and used on a lot of projects, so while this might be the norm now, I don't expect it will be in a year.  For people that do know Git, our using Git would actually _lower_ the bar for their submitting patches, because they can create a patch on their own Git repository (or if that's not accessible then on a site like GitHub) and give us a URL, where we can pull it in to review and possibly commit.

Another concern is what the Git experience is on Windows, which I can't evaluate.  The Git experience is pretty much the same on OS X, Unix, and Linux mostly because command-line support is so similar.  But while Windows has very different command-line support, it does seem that msysgit (http://code.google.com/p/msysgit/) gets around that issue pretty well.  I'd love to hear about your experience with Git on Windows, though.

One concern I have had in the past was whether our Hudson continuous integration system will support Git.  I happy to say that a Git plugin for Hudson has been available for some time, that our Hudson team have a test environment where they've install it, and I will be creating some test jobs for them.  So while this still is an issue, it shouldn't be within a few weeks of the New Year (or sooner if I can find the time).

Please stand up and be heard.

Best regards,

Randall
_______________________________________________
dna-dev mailing list
dna-dev at lists.jboss.org
https://lists.jboss.org/mailman/listinfo/dna-dev