From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: David Kastrup Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Prefer Mercurial instead of git Date: Sat, 04 Jan 2014 15:23:22 +0100 Message-ID: <87bnzrzuzp.fsf@fencepost.gnu.org> References: <1388785952.11337.16.camel@Iris> <874n5k12ft.fsf@fencepost.gnu.org> <1388841220.11337.21.camel@Iris> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1388845401 26489 80.91.229.3 (4 Jan 2014 14:23:21 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 4 Jan 2014 14:23:21 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Jordi =?iso-8859-1?Q?Guti=E9rrez?= Hermoso Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Jan 04 15:23:28 2014 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1VzS8N-0007ni-M6 for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 04 Jan 2014 15:23:27 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:54623 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1VzS8N-0003Rb-9Z for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 04 Jan 2014 09:23:27 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:53732) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1VzS8J-0003RI-TL for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 04 Jan 2014 09:23:24 -0500 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1VzS8J-0005T2-2t for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 04 Jan 2014 09:23:23 -0500 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::e]:51819) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1VzS8I-0005Sy-Vp for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 04 Jan 2014 09:23:23 -0500 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:58995 helo=lola) by fencepost.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1VzS8I-0007Vl-Ex; Sat, 04 Jan 2014 09:23:22 -0500 Original-Received: by lola (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 1669BE0483; Sat, 4 Jan 2014 15:23:22 +0100 (CET) User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.3.50 (gnu/linux) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Error: Malformed IPv6 address (bad octet value). X-Received-From: 2001:4830:134:3::e X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:167290 Archived-At: Jordi Guti=E9rrez Hermoso writes: > On Sat, 2014-01-04 at 11:11 +0100, David Kastrup wrote: >> Jordi Guti=E9rrez Hermoso writes: >>=20 >> > My main argument in favour of hg is not technical, but rather social. >> > For GNU, I think it is far more important to support a project that >> > aligns with GNU's aims, >>=20 >> Emacs shot itself in this foot with Bzr already. > > That wasn't the problem with bzr. The problems with bzr are technical, > not social. Its *algorithms* were unsalvageable. Sorry, that's just nonsense. Algorithms can always be replaced by better ones. Database formats can be migrated. It is not a technical problem that Bazaar was essentially swallowed and privatized by Canonical. Its technical problems affected its user base and had an influence on it not surpassing the critical mass for getting a vibrant community behind it that would have rendered Canonical's power grab (and subsequent retirement) teethless. At any rate, I don't think we are likely to get better advice than from Stephen Turnbull. He is the XEmacs maintainer, and XEmacs has now used Mercurial as its version control system for several years. If his experience makes him lean towards Git (with which he is also quite familiar it would seem), I consider this much more relevant than the recommendations of insider fans of a tool. An insider fan is nice to have because it's usually easy to embarrass him or her into doing a lot of work making his tool actually better fit the job. But at one point of time, they tire, and then the product and the underlying steady community are more important. And that's the sort of settled situation that XEmacs is in regarding its use of Mercurial. If it's Stephen's view that a second time they would probably not do that again given the state and development of Git, and that's more or less how I understood his comments, then that's quite strong medicine. There seems to be no point in ignoring extremely pertinent experience. --=20 David Kastrup