[Python-Dev] Python source code on Mercurial

[Paul Moore]

On 21/03/2008, Brett Cannon <brett at python.org> wrote:
> Bazaar supports lightweight checkouts which act like svn checkouts.
>  They are also actively working on allowing for partial checkouts. That
>  way you can either specify an initial revision to pull the history
>  down to or start with an initial lightweight checkout and have it save
>  history as it pulls it over the network as you use it.

I know, but the details aren't 100% clear yet. Mercurial is in much
the same situation (although perhaps less far down that route - Bazaar
development seems far faster at the moment, for better or worse).

One point, which I assume you know but others may not  - a bazaar
"checkout" is not like a local branch. In a checkout, all commits go
straight back to the parent branch, meaning that local commits aren't
possible (OK, that's an oversimplification, but let's keep things
simple) and the workflow is much more like Subversion.

The biggest problem with DVCSs is the vast range of subtly different
terminology, for related but distinct concepts. It makes having a
common terminology for comparisons really hard, resulting in all sorts
of confusion :-(

Paul.