Re: [Monotone-devel] netsync status

[Torsten Rueger]

On 24 Feb 2004, at 17:42, graydon hoare wrote:
> > Graydon,
> >  By 'throw out the old network code' do you mean the NNTP/SMTP/Depot  
> > code?
>
> that is what I meant, yeah.

Oh. I had misunderstood that one (too).  That'd be a shame.

>   - most firewalls people work on really do block outbound-initiated
>     connections on non-HTTP ports
No that's not so common in my experience.

>   - most admins aren't willing to listen to reason on extra cases, eg
>     can you convince your admin to let you use cvs pserver?

Admins don't have reason, they have rules. Never have I met an admin 
that would just punch a hole in his firewall if you ask him. Virtual 
nets, tunnels, computers outside the firewall, yes, but no holes.
Really the only port in that I've seen is ssh, and not even that 
everywhere.

> I'll admit to being somewhat pleased with the old "any source of 
> packets will do" approach, too.
Well it is very practical, or sounds like it.

> I'd appreciate if other people who feel the older system had desirable 
> properties -- concretely, in real world use, not just on paper -- 
> could speak up so I can get a feel for it.
Ok, as I'm not actively using monotone i can only comment in the 
"abstract", still I think it's worth mentioning: For distributed 
collaborative work, the "old" approach is much much more usable. Sure, 
for centralised version control the netsync is better. But there you're 
into Subversion/cvs territory and monotone has no chance against them. 
Not because of technical or feature reasons, just plain mass.
So I think monotone would be used (also by me) for distributed efforts, 
where it may be difficult to lay hands on a public server. So people 
would develop independently and exchange through mail or a cgi web 
server (everyone has a homepage somewhere, hey they're free). Netsync 
would be used (or I'd use it) for exchanging on lan's and/or between my 
own computers and/or close associates. In that case the choice is 
between monotone, darcs or arch, and there monotone shines I find.

There. 2 cent, almost nothing.

Torsten