Re: Version control

On Wed, 18 Mar 2009 18:03:13 +1100
Daniel Pittman <[email protected]> wrote:

> Alan L Tyree <[email protected]> writes:
> > On Wed, 18 Mar 2009 12:43:02 +1100
> > Daniel Pittman <[email protected]> wrote:
> >> Erik de Castro Lopo <[email protected]> writes:
> >> > Alan L Tyree wrote:
> >> >
> >> >> Looking for some advice. I have used RCS version control for
> >> >> writing LaTeX documents for some time, but am looking at the
> >> >> advantages of using a distributed version control system.
> >> >>
> >> >> Are there any serious advantages of one over the other?
> 
> [...]
> 
> >> Anyway, Alan, did you have some specific questions?
> >
> > I think they have been more or less answered. In looking at the
> > websites of the different ones, they all look alike to the
> > non-professional.
> 
> I know the feeling.  Back when I last reviewed these professionally,
> as part of a move to a DVCS from CVS in the office, I also found that
> my expectations and experiences were at odds.
> 
> Some of them, like Bzr and Darcs, looked great on paper, but they
> didn't stack up in the real world.  Others, like git, looked terrible
> but did surprisingly well in practice...
> 
> > I will just be using it for personal use, so a lot of the features
> > probably don't worry me too much. I just want something easy to use
> > that helps me organise and coordinate my writing between the desk
> > and several laptops.
> >
> > I have used RCS for some time. I do nearly all of my writing in
> > emacs, so the vc mode takes care of most of the hassle as long as I
> > stay on the one machine.
> 
> Well, on that basis I recommend git, together with the `git.el' or
> `magit.el' wrappers — they present a PCL-CVS like status buffer,
> allowing you to operate on the repository as a whole.
> 
> In large part I recommend this because git merging is the nicest I
> have dealt with, and because it has enough momentum that you can find
> documentation on how to do, um, whatever, as well as GUI tools that
> wrap the hard parts.
> 
> 
> > But the real problem is synching the desk and laptops. A simple
> > synch program does not do it since I am always overwriting one or
> > the other
> > - rsync helps here, but still easy to screw up.
> >
> > That is my REAL problem - it just seemed to me that DVCS was a way
> > to solve it.
> 
> I think it is.  Any of the big three, git, Mercurial or Brz, should
> allow you to maintain things by pushing changes rather than
> overwriting files, and then merging the results.
> 
> Oh.  One hint: if you can afford it, declare a "central" system and
> use a star topology: push changes to your "central" repository from
> each machine, and then fetch changes from that on the others.
> 
> This is a much gentler introduction to DVCS than pushing directly
> between all the machines, although that will work fine with any of the
> choices.

Thanks for all the help on this. I'm grateful for the positive feedback
that this might be a solution to my problem and the hints/comments
about the various systems.

I have played with Bzr for a couple of days. Maybe try the other "big
two" - that will give me an excuse to put off writing for a few
days :-).

Cheers,
Alan


> 
> Regards,
>         Daniel
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> 


-- 
Alan L Tyree                    http://www2.austlii.edu.au/~alan
Tel:  04 2748 6206              Fax: +61 2 4782 7092

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