[IPython-dev] Moving to git/github

[Erik Tollerud]

As a "casual" developer/power user of ipython, I have something to add here...

> So I don't see a compelling reason to go to hg, despite the fact that
> I'm sure it's a perfectly good tool.  I do like the fact that hg is
> there and is good, I have the impression that the competition between
> hg and git is benefiting both projects and they are learning from each
> other.

There is one compelling reason to choose hg over git: simplicity.  My
experience between bzr, hg, and git has been that they are in exactly
that order of increasing complexity... but hg and bzr are both *way*
easier than git.  Frankly, it shows that git was written by someone
who wrote the linux kernel - yes you can do a lot of things, but the
simplest of things are just more complicated or have surprising
gotchas.  The hg<->git bridge makes things easier, but the times I've
used it, it seems to negate all the advantages of hg or git (speed
and/or the advanced features), although that's only based on a couple
data points.  And anyway, if the goal is simplicity, adding an
additional conceptual layer is far worse than taking a few-percent
speed hit.

Now given that ipython is a somewhat "low-level" utility in that it
seems rather difficult to just do some quick hacks on without really
understanding what's going on, maybe this isn't an issue, as maybe all
the core devs are fine with a more complex system... but git would
certainly be a barrier to someone like me contributing.


> It's true that it's a little annoying to use all systems, but
> hopefully soon we'll be down to hg and git: I don't see bzr going
> anywhere, and git-svn is a pretty good option to use for svn repos
> once you're familiar with git.  And as those two converge even
> further, it should get even easier.

I personally use bzr for all of my projects that I have a choice in
the matter... I think it's not at all clear-cut that bzr is going to
disappear any sooner than hg or git unless Canonical and Ubuntu
disappear - they're committed to launchpad and it is very closely tied
to bzr - a lot of people will stick with it for exactly those reasons.
 That's certainly not a reason to stick with bzr if most of the
ipython devs aren't happy with it, but it's not fair to say it's dying
by any stretch.

I'd also add that it looks like you're using the pack-0.92 format...
the more recent 2a format works quite a bit faster in my experience,
and I've never had any conversion problems...