[wp-hackers] Switching from SVN

[Otto]

On Thu, Dec 9, 2010 at 9:49 PM, Brian Layman <bulk at thecodecave.com> wrote:
> The fact that an open source solution existed at all 6
> years ago was great.

10 years. SVN was created in 2000.

Also, you're talking to somebody who has used a lot of revision
control systems. I used Visual SourceSafe in 2000 when working on
Windows stuff, CVS in college, SVN since then, RCS as recently as 4
years ago (seriously), BitKeeper (shoot me), something new that I
can't remember the name of last year (it was bad enough that I blocked
it out), and I even once worked on a system that still had SCCS on it.

My mental block is pretty much exclusive to *distributed* revision
control systems. Git, Bazaar, Mercurial. See, without the concept of a
central point for the code, the whole thing doesn't make any sense to
me. You check stuff out, you check stuff in, you merge... that's the
whole point of revision control.

See, having a local repository doesn't make any sense. I've never
needed to roll-back my own changes locally. I just undo the changes
myself. Or fix the problem. Why would you ever check in non-working
code? You test the thing *before* you check it in (when possible). I
don't check in code as I work on it. I work on it until it's working,
then I check it in.

A lot of WordPress treats the checked in code as "production" code.
It's finished. Ready to run. All of WordPress core is pretty much
runnable code, except for the occasional mistakes. WordPress.org
itself runs on trunk, whenever anybody gets around to deploying new
code to it. The core WordPress.com code is updated tens of times a
day. I myself run the WordPress trunk on my own sites, updated daily.
To me, that's the whole point: the checked in code is finished code,
for the most part. I don't check in unfinished code.

So I don't really get why you'd want a local repo. I don't get why
you'd want to merge your local repo with a "central" repo. I don't get
why you'd want to have to do all this frickin' merging from the
central back to your local all the bloody time. And branching is a
pain in the ass regardless of what type of system you use, so why
would you want to do it more? That sort of thing. I need something
that explains why this stuff is better your way. Because to me, it
sounds far more difficult. In order to make a change, I have to
download an entire frickin' repo and then create a branch? F- that,
bro. That's really enough to keep me from even trying. That's why I
avoid github, because it makes everything complicated. Give me the
code, let me change it, let me send you the patch. That's easy. That
way I'm dealing one-on-one with some person. Trying to figure out your
wacky-ass system is a pain in the ass.

Just saying. :)

-Otto