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Re: On the subject of Git, Bazaar, and the future of Emacs development


From: chad
Subject: Re: On the subject of Git, Bazaar, and the future of Emacs development
Date: Tue, 2 Apr 2013 01:25:41 -0700

On 01 Apr 2013, at 20:24, Stephen J. Turnbull <address@hidden> wrote:

> Why the interest is insufficient, I'm not sure, 


I'll speculate a bit beyond `python', and generalize from my
observations:

(D)VCS is (for the sake of this discussion) an infrastructure tool.
Reliability is very, very important; probably moreso even than
editor or compiler - because it's much easier to notice problems
early with editor or compiler, while a VCS problem can hide a
disaster for a long while (early backup software used to have similar
issues).

Bzr itself is Not Simple, and until it effectively stagnated, was
also not especially stable.  The internal models are relatively
complex, allowing bazaar to handle many different workflows, and
the structures (for example, the repository layout) were changing
relatively frequently.  When Emacs adopted bazaar, bzr was on the
cusp of a big change, with another on the horizon (looms was one
candidate; I've forgotten the name of the other).

As things slowed down inside bzr, the barriers to entry went up,rather
than down. Patches sat around bit-rotting rather than being included
or rejected, which made it hard (at least conceptually) to get up
to speed with the project. At the same time, the core thinned (Martin
Pool, for example).

None of these are impassible, but they combine to make `just use
this other thing that thousands of other projects use' awfully
attractive.

I hope this helps.
~Chad




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