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Advice for the creators of Distributed Version Control Software September 2, 2007

Some advice from the trenches for the creators of distributed version control
software:



Just some small pieces of advice that I think would really help based on
observations using
Darcs,
Mercurial
(hg), and Git.

1. Get together and decide on a common term for this stuff. I don’t care what
   you call it just pick something! I
   keep hearing / seeing:
   
• distributed version control system
• distributed revision control system
  
• distributed source control system
  
• distributed source control management system
  
2. If you’re not working on Darcs go check out how it interacts with people.
   I’m not a huge fan of it’s speed or the way it thinks about things but I
   keep wanting to use it because it’s so damn easy (for most things).
3. Sharing a repo via a web site should require zero steps beyond uploading it.
   In Darcs if you upload it to a public site, it’s shared. The end. In
   Mercurial you have to install and configure a cgi. In Git you have to clone
   the repo, then upload the clone, then on the server call “git –bare
   update-server-info” from within the clone directory. I have no clue what
   this does, why it’s required, or if it can be done before uploading because
   the docs suck.
4. The ability to download a repo from a web site should be build it. Darcs and
   Mercurial have this, although Mercurial requires that cgi to be running on
   the server. Git requires you to compile git with “curl support” but nowhere
   do they tell you HOW to compile git with curl support and when you end up
   compiling without it it doesn’t let you know you’ll never be able to use it
   for http:// or ftp:// repos.
5. Do not assume that because a file is missing I want it removed from the
   repository. Destructive behavior should NEVER be the default. Mercurial gets
   this right.
6. Make it easy to roll back the changes in a single file. Darcs is the only
   one that gets this wrong and it’s because Darcs doesn’t think in terms of
   files. It thinks in terms of patches which gives it uses in great ways, but
   its still a pain in the ass to just get back a file I deleted or roll back
   changes in just that file. It’s doable, but a pain.
   
7. Follow Git’s example (I think Mercurial does this too) and give me a cryptographic guarantee that what i expect to be in the repository is what’s in the repository and that nothing has become corrupted or maliciously altered

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