Reduced performance related to the number of branches

[simmo]

I have been using CVS for some time now and regularly make use of
branches to carry out new lines of development without affecting the
core code base and as far as I am concerned it works very well.

A friend of mine has been using CVS for some time and also wants to
start making more use of branches, but he has had some opposition from
some of his team members. One of the main reasons they have come up
with, for not using branches is that when lots (not sure how many lots
are) of branches are created, the performance of CVS is greatly
reduced! I have never heard this ever mentioned before. I certainly
haven't read it on any posts on here, in the CVS book I have or after
doing a quick search on the web.

As I understand it, there is not a great deal of difference between a
tag and a branch both of which are  essentially entries in a file
somewhere in the repository. So I guess that the more entries that are
made the longer it could take to search for a given branch or tag name,
but as I see it the cost would be negligable. I also assume the same
could be said about creating lots of revisions of files as well.

Unfortunately I can't really offer my friend a cast iron guarantee
whether I am right or his team are right - which I'm finding
frustrating! I certainly haven't got the time or the inclination to do
any tests so I was hoping someone would be able to confirm one way or
the other, or maybe point me in the direction a web page or something
that does.

TIA