[Info-vax] Where to locate software

[Craig A. Berry]

On Wednesday, June 15, 2016 at 8:23:40 AM UTC-5, Johnny Billquist wrote:
> On 2016-06-15 14:39, Craig A. Berry wrote:
> > On 6/15/16 4:18 AM, Johnny Billquist wrote:
> >
> >> I've been trying to keep out of this thread, but could people just
> >> clarify one thing for me. What is CVS and SVN classified as here? Are
> >> they distributed version control systems, or centralized?
> >
> > Centralized.
> 
> Ok.
> 
> >> Because the normal flow of work is never that you lock files when
> >> working on them in these systems, but I did get the impressions that
> >> people classified them as centralized.
> >
> > If "working on them" does not include doing any commits, then I suppose
> > that's true. But one of the things you get used to with a DVCS and miss
> > when you don't have it is the ability to commit willy nilly, go wild
> > with experiments, and then revise those commits, perhaps "squash" a
> > string of smaller commits into fewer more coherent ones, all before
> > pushing them to a repository where others can see them.
> 
> Well, I definitely can, and do work in this pattern with CVS and SVN as 
> well. So I can't say that this is in any way something defining of a 
> distributed version control system then.
> 
> (The way you do this is that you create a branch where you do all your 
> experimentation, and then you merge back to the source when you want 
> others to see it. And yes, you can have several people working on your 
> experimental branch in parallel as well. And they can all check in and 
> out things concurrently. This is what branches exist for.)

It's not the same thing.  The branches (even nominally "private" ones) exist on the server in a centralized VCS.  Plus there is no distinction between commit and push; if you create a changeset, you are creating it on the server.  (Unless you have a completely private repository, I guess.)

I'm not saying DVCS's are a panacea but I do think folks ought to try them if they haven't yet.  The learning curve can be steep but you can do a lot even with just a small subset of the available features.  I was dragged kicking and screaming into using git when Perl switched from Perforce to git a few years ago.  Now I can't imagine going back to a centralized VCS in a situation where I can choose.