From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Alan Mackenzie Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: On the popularity of git [Was: Git question: when using branches, how does git treat working files when changing branches?] Date: Thu, 29 Oct 2015 17:02:37 +0000 Message-ID: <20151029170237.GF2510@acm.fritz.box> References: <20151028192017.GC2538@acm.fritz.box> <87k2q6wy8p.fsf@linaro.org> <20151028223252.GD2538@acm.fritz.box> <87vb9qd2h4.fsf@wanadoo.es> <20151028235340.GE2538@acm.fritz.box> <87ziz213wx.fsf@fencepost.gnu.org> <20151029123554.GB2510@acm.fritz.box> <87h9l995ec.fsf@fencepost.gnu.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1446138093 19522 80.91.229.3 (29 Oct 2015 17:01:33 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 29 Oct 2015 17:01:33 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: David Kastrup Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Thu Oct 29 18:01:25 2015 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 1ZrqZm-0003dz-5z for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 29 Oct 2015 18:01:22 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:45404 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZrqZl-0000jv-Hy for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Thu, 29 Oct 2015 13:01:21 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:41775) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZrqZP-0000VI-PL for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 29 Oct 2015 13:01:00 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZrqZK-00006V-JV for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 29 Oct 2015 13:00:59 -0400 Original-Received: from mail.muc.de ([193.149.48.3]:25036) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZrqZK-00005F-6x for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 29 Oct 2015 13:00:54 -0400 Original-Received: (qmail 23903 invoked by uid 3782); 29 Oct 2015 17:00:52 -0000 Original-Received: from acm.muc.de (p548A58AB.dip0.t-ipconnect.de [84.138.88.171]) by colin.muc.de (tmda-ofmipd) with ESMTP; Thu, 29 Oct 2015 18:00:51 +0100 Original-Received: (qmail 3984 invoked by uid 1000); 29 Oct 2015 17:02:37 -0000 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <87h9l995ec.fsf@fencepost.gnu.org> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.23 (2014-03-12) X-Delivery-Agent: TMDA/1.1.12 (Macallan) X-Primary-Address: acm@muc.de X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: FreeBSD 9.x X-Received-From: 193.149.48.3 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:192915 Archived-At: Hello, David. On Thu, Oct 29, 2015 at 02:21:47PM +0100, David Kastrup wrote: > At some point of time you should develop a theory as to why Git actually > managed to become the most popular version control system in spite of > the meaning of its commands not being obvious as soon as you can wave > around an English language certificate. I've been wondering about git's popularity for some long time. That git's complexity is not necessary in a powerful VCS is demonstrated by the counterexamples of hg and (to a lesser extent) bzr. git had (and has) Linux behind it, thus giving a lot of hackers being forced to learn git early on. This surely gave git a huge advantage in numbers at the start of the competition. But I think the real reason is that there are lots of hackers around, possibly mainly the younger ones, who revel in their mastery of complexity rather than attempting to sidestep and avoid it. > -- > David Kastrup -- Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).