Re: [boost] [git] Mercurial?

Subject: Re: [boost] [git] Mercurial?
From: Edward Diener (eldiener_at_[hidden])
Date: 2012-03-21 19:11:59

On 3/21/2012 8:18 AM, Dave Abrahams wrote:
>
> on Tue Mar 20 2012, Edward Diener<eldiener-AT-tropicsoft.com>  wrote:
>
>> On 3/20/2012 7:03 AM, Julian Gonggrijp wrote:
>> ... snip
>>>
>>> Well, allow me to present some fair reasoning to you.
>>>
>>> With regard to git versus svn: I think enough fair reasons have been
>>> given why git (or a DVCS in general) is better than svn. I'm not
>>> going to repeat those arguments here.
>>
>> I have never heard a single technical argument, in all the endless
>> mentions of Git among the people riding that bandwagon, why Git is
>> better than SVN, or even why any DVCS is better than a centralized
>> SCCS. I consider this whole move to Git and/or DVCS among "hip"
>> programmers little more than a move to conform with what others are
>> doing and feel "cool".
>
> Wait for Beman's talk at BoostCon/C++Now
> (http://cppnow.org/session/moving-boost-to-git/).  Beman is among the
> last people I'd accuse of being preoccupied with what's "hip" and "cool"

I will be glad to listen to Beman's talk when it appears online.

>
>> I am perfectly willing to read well-chosen technical arguments but not
>> from people already sold on one side or the other. But I really
>> despair of anyone being able to present such arguments in the
>> atmosphere created by Git fanatics and DVCS fanatics. The only thing I
>> have gotten from all this is "I've tried it, I like it, and therefore
>> its superior".
>>
>> Feel free, anyone, to point me to a purely technical discussion,
>> article, whatnot, explaining the practical reasons why using a DVCS,
>> or Git, is more productive and more pleasurable than using a
>> centralized SCCS like Subversion.
>
> A purely technical discussion is unlikely to be able to give you much
> insight into pleasure.  The biologists are still trying to plumb the
> depths of that one :-)

If someone technically savvy asks you what the advantages of programming 
with C++ are, do you answer that it gives you pleasure or do you 
enumerate the technical advantages which make it easier to use in 
programming tasks ?

All I have been asking for is some good technical arguments by which 
using a DVCS is easier, more flexible, superior than using a centralized 
SCCS. What I keep getting back, unfortunately, is a philosophy, or a 
personal preference, or a try-it-you'll-like-it answer. I will be 
looking forward to understanding the techncial arguments from Beman's talk.