On Mon, Feb 08, 2010 at 07:46:39AM -0800, Noel Henson wrote:
> I need to make a final decision on the version control system the
> developers will use. It comes down to git and svn.
The main difference between svn and git is that the svn is centralized
and git is a distributed VCS.
The difference between both concepts is explained on [1]. Especially
the paragraph "Organizing a Distributed Project" should be interesting
for vimoutliner. The image in this paragraph shows a project where the
maintainer has only one branch, for vimoutliner I could image an
additional staging area or an experimental branch to test things before
you merge them into your stable branch. A possibly biased comparison
between git and svn can be found on [2].
[3] shows how git looks in practice using an other open source project
of comparable size (though more rapidly developed in the last few
months) as example. Everyone can create forks/branches at any time, the
maintainer of the main branch can chose which patches from other peoples
branches he or she wants to pull into his official branch.
The whole merging and branching is optional, one can also use git as one
would use svn, so if you choose git you could also use it like you would
use an centralised vcs, but make it more easy for others to follow your
development and maintain their non-official patches.
Those who don't want to or don't know how to use a vcs could still send
patches per mailing list. Since this is often used in the linux
development, there are git subcommands that support this, although one
can of course still send and apply patches using the known traditional
commands.
> What are your preferences and why?
I think, especially since this is not a fulltime project for you and you
might need time to review some contributed patches because you are busy
doing more important things, vimoutliner could greatly benefit from
using a distributed VCS. Imagine you are really busy for one or two
months and someone posts a bigger patch to the list. When others merge
this patch and some add fixes or improvements to their branches, these
improvements could be shared and further improved as easily as the
original patch. This could lead to an already matured and more clean
patch series even before you find time to review it and thus save your
time. With a centralized VCS, the development would probably stagnate
if the main maintainer is busy.
Regards
Carsten
[1]
http://betterexplained.com/articles/intro-to-distributed-version-control-illustrated/ [2]
http://git.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/GitSvnComparison [3]
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