[webkit-dev] Should we consider switching to git over svn?

[Brady Eidson]

On Oct 8, 2007, at 11:30 PM, Oliver Hunt wrote:

> The average user uses update-webkit + some manual work, svn-create- 
> patch, svn-apply-patch
> Behind the scenes these do, svn up, svn diff + some magic, patch +  
> magic

Yup

> Under git they would be
> git fetch && git rebase origin/master + unfortunately some manual  
> work (described below)
> git diff master + some magic
> patch + magic

That "unfortuantely some manual work" is currently a huge wrench in my  
cog.

> when svn and git hit conflicts they both require manual work, with  
> svn you do fix the conflict and tell svn that you're done with svn  
> resolved <file>
> with git you have either git-mergetool, which will open a file diff  
> utility for each file with a conflict, or you can merge manually,  
> and use git add

The svn process is very linear, and a "one time" thing per update.  I  
just went through the process of being asked to do multi-step merges  
on the same file spread out over multiple git commits, and having git- 
mergetool bring up a blank document in each half of the diff utility  
window.

This is not friendly.

> What makes this simple, single branch development more tricky with  
> git is that git has the idea of local history, so it is necessary to  
> commit locally prior to updating, and then extra work is needed if  
> you want to retain a single patch for the final commit.  We would  
> need to work out what the standard workflow should be in this mode.

Thats what I'm requesting we do - and make it as clear, simple, and  
"bulletproof" as our current svn process.  (note - not claiming the  
current svn process *is* bulletproof, just that the git process be  
*as* bulletproof)

> So it is more difficult when doing simple single branch development,  
> but not insurmountably so, it gets more copmlicated once you start  
> dealing with many branches but that's not something you can do with  
> svn even if you wanted to.

Watching Mark Rowe periodically struggle to get potential new  
developers up to speed with the current SVN procedure makes this  
statement worrisome to me.  IMHO, making it "more difficult, but not  
insurmountably so" translates to "turn away even more people who are  
casually interested in the project but might end up being serious  
contributers if they're able to get their feet sufficiently wet"

~Brady