Re: Rant [Was: Unresolved CVS conflict]

[Etienne Gagnon]

Tom Tromey wrote:
> Etienne> It would be so much easier if we had something like:
> Etienne> $ svn st
>
> I don't know what this is.
>
> If it is some kind of "what is the status of my working tree?" query,
> I recommend the cvsutils (or is it cvs-utils?  I recommend both...)
> for this sort of thing.  I probably use "cvsu" 50 times a day.

It is somewhat similar, but this is a "client-side"-only operation
with Subversion (much faster and does not require network access).

> Etienne> I vote for Subversion (I see no need for distributed
> Etienne> classpath repository).
>
> I've been hoping to use monotone (http://www.venge.net/monotone/) to
> help with classpath/libgcj merges.  A system like this would help us a
> lot...  unfortunately it isn't quite ready for this yet.

Subversion is now stable.  I have been using it since May 2003, and have
had no problem with it.  It has many interesting features.  It is not
a "patches flowing across the Internet" find of system (like arch,
monotone, bit-keeper), but a more traditional "central repository"
system.  But, this central repository is stored in a database, which
is very good for many reasons:
1- real transactions on commits
2- no problems associated with the number of created files for huge
   projects (e.g. granularity of space allocation in file system, etc).
3- easy to back-up (even *hot* backups!)

I think the best way to see what it is all about is to look at
 http://subversion.tigris.org/
and read the *excellent* Free online book at:
 http://svnbook.red-bean.com/


> Etienne> Arch is nice but does not allow a single file to be split
> Etienne> (which does happen regularly, specially when doing
> Etienne> Object-Oriented development, e.g. spin-off package classes
> Etienne> [Method=> Method + VMMethod]).
>
> Subversion can do this?

Of course!  Arch's main architect thinks that this should not be needed
(and argues strongly about "splitting" files), as it would break Arch's
view of "merging".  But, my experience is that splitting a file *does*
happen.  It has happened in the past in Classpath, and I have also
experienced a few file splits in my SableCC project.  Preserving history
in case of splits is, in my opinion, as needed as preserving history
in case of file rename/move (which is broken in CVS).

Etienne

--
Etienne M. Gagnon, Ph.D.             http://www.info.uqam.ca/~egagnon/
SableVM:                                       http://www.sablevm.org/
SableCC:                                       http://www.sablecc.org/