We used CVS for several years, and switched to git nearly 6 years ago.
We are very satisfied with git!
To switch to subversion at this time would be really a step backwards,
and that without need --- for the daily tasks git-usage is very
intuitive, and with git-gui and gitk two standardised simple
graphical tools are also available.
Once you know it a bit, you will also use it for all (so well, nearly all)
other tasks. For example collaboration on a mathematical paper: You just
send around a tarball (archive) containing the git-repository: Some will
just ignore it, just changing the .tex-files (for example), some will
just look into the history (very easy with gitk), and some will make
full use of it (basically trivial with git-gui) --- no need for some server
or such stuff!
There are also several books out there now.
The talk on git being "complicated" for my understanding results from the fact
that some people are involved in rather technical stuff and then forget to
abstract away from it when they write about git: for example there was an article
in a German Linux magazine for the normal user, the guy wanted to introduce git,
but all examples came from the Linux-kernel, with all complications involved etc.
--- it was hilarious! So you find overcomplicated presentations of git, but you
can just ignore that.
It seems to me that git has really overtaken hg.
Oliver
On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 10:01:49AM +0000, Rupert Swarbrick wrote:
> Raymond Toy <toy.raymond at gmail.com> writes:
> > On 1/30/11 11:40 PM, Robert Dodier wrote:
> >> On 1/30/11, Raymond Toy <toy.raymond at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>> One item that I wanted to point out is that Sourceforge is considering
> >>> the end-of-life of the CVS service. There's no timeline given, but this
> >>> does affect maxima since maxima is currently using CVS. I suppose we
> >>> should consider moving to another version control system sometime soon.
> >>> (Other than the occasional downtime, I've been quite happy with CVS even
> >>> if it is old and crusty. I don't really want to learn yet another
> >>> system, but it seems we might be forced to.)
> >> Well, there have been suggestions to use some other system --
> >> I think git and maybe subversion have been mentioned.
> >> I don't care too much one way or another.
> >> I guess at this point I wouldn't mind switching to git.
> > I notice that clisp (also hosted on sourceforge) wants to move to hg
> > (mercurial). Perhaps a distributed version control system like git or
> > hg would be best. But I think subversion probably has the lowest
> > learning curve if you're already familiar with cvs. I have used the
> > others a very little. Only to get the latest version of something.
>
> Since I'm not particularly active on this list, the last thing I want to
> do is have my only post being a git vs. hg vs. CVS vs... flame. But...
>
> Git is much more complicated than CVS. But it's not more complicated for
> the "end users": either those committing to the project or those pulling
> it. For the committer, the typical usage looks like
>
> git status
> # Ooh, I changed some stuff.
> git add foo.lisp bar.lisp
> git commit
> # Type a commit message in the editor that appears
> git push
>
> For the person pulling from the tree just to build:
>
> git clone git://someurl
> ./configure && make && make install
>
> and then when they update:
>
> git pull
>
> Of course, there are more ways to do things, but my point is that it's
> easy.
>
> Now, you can also do clever things, which weren't possible with
> CVS. Doing these is somewhat complicated. But the things themselves are
> also complicated, so maybe this isn't a problem. Also bear in mind that
> git's very popular. As such, there are an awful lot of tutorials
> floating around for how to do semi-complicated things.
>
> That's just my 2 pence. Incidentally, at least I (and probably others)
> have been converting the maxima tree to git on the fly for a while,
> since it's much easier to work with and see what changed when. In case
> you're worried about bloat in the amount one has to store locally, my
> .git folder (which holds *all* the commit history of the project) is
> 40mb or so.
>
> Rupert
> _______________________________________________
> Maxima mailing list
> Maxima at math.utexas.edu
> http://www.math.utexas.edu/mailman/listinfo/maxima
--
Dr. Oliver Kullmann
Computer Science Department
Swansea University
Faraday Building, Singleton Park
Swansea SA2 8PP, UK
http://cs.swan.ac.uk/~csoliver/