Re: GNA is down...

[David Chisnall]

On 13 Feb 2012, at 09:53, Fred Kiefer wrote:

> The Etoile people should have a lot of experience with git already. maybe 
> they even have some clever scripts to transfer the current SVN repository 
> into a git one. And most of all we would need a good tutorial to get old 
> fashioned developers like me up to speed with git.

My experience of git is that it combines a bad architecture with a terrible 
implementation and a user interface that I can only assume was Linus' response 
to a bet that he couldn't create anything more painful to work with than Linux.

If we're considering a switch to a DVCS, then I'd strongly recommend taking a 
look at Fossil (http://www.fossil-scm.org).  It has a lot of very nice 
features, including:

- Integrated bug tracker and wiki (no more problems where they're hosted in 
separate systems, bugs status updates can be easily tied to specific commits)

- A mode that automatically pushes changes upstream, so people only use it as a 
DVCS when they actually want DVCS features.

- A single (small!) binary for the server that can run in a chroot or jail, so 
it's really trivial for people to set up mirrors (I could happily run a backup 
instance on my server)

- A command line interface that seems like an actual human was at least 
consulted in the design (hg comes closer than git in this regard)

The only disadvantage I've seen of Fossil compared to git or hg is that it 
doesn't (yet) scale as well.  For a comparatively small project like GNUstep, 
this is not a significant issue (NetBSD is in the process of switching to 
Fossil, and they have a lot more developers than us...)

David

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