[Python-Dev] Looking for VCS usage scenarios (original) (raw)

Nick Coghlan ncoghlan at gmail.com
Tue Nov 4 22:28:31 CET 2008

Ralf Schmitt wrote:

On Tue, Nov 4, 2008 at 6:45 PM, Georg Brandl <g.brandl at gmx.net> wrote:

Ralf Schmitt schrieb:

I think you really should not exclude any dvcs based on it's implementation language. I.e. requiring it being written in python for the sake of "eating your own dogfood" is just a very weak argument. git is certainly missing from your list. And by then, why not include darcs, GNU arch and monotone?

please include all of them and choose the best one. that was my point.

The PEP can at least mention darcs, arch, monotone, and then drop them on the basis of not having a compelling reason to prefer them to the 3 more popular choices. I don't see any need to go into the "other choices" further than that - our needs aren't wildly divergent from that of other open source projects, and while popularity is a poor final criteria, it's a decent filter to narrow the scope of the initial investigation.

For git, without a killer feature that is "oh my god, wow!" when compared to the features offered by Mercurial and Bazaar, the implementation language is enough to push it to the back of the list for me. Sure, that's a pretty lousy criteria in the absolute sense, but given that it is obvious that there are two perfectly acceptable options written in the language we ourselves are implementing, then it should take something pretty impressive to get us to look at a third choice.

That would leave the PEP to focus on the Mercurial/Bazaar comparison (as Brett originally intended) and I'm sure even that limited comparison is going to give the infrastructure committee (and any other willing assistants from python-dev) plenty of work to do).

The main thing I would suggest is that some kind of rationale like the one above be included into the PEP itself to try to forestall the folks going "but what about darcs/arch/monotone/git/whatever".

Also, something that should be done for ANY candidate VCS: translate the current Python developer FAQ to give the appropriate answers for the candidate VCS.

Cheers, Nick.

-- Nick Coghlan | ncoghlan at gmail.com | Brisbane, Australia

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