>In terms of using patches as a transport, its just a transport. I think >it would be cleaner to import the branch as a branch and have final >merges into mainline branches controlled using current practice. >Patches in trac are, IMHO, clumsy although in practice it probably >doesn't matter much. > >I'd also say that the patch approach is more appropriate to SVN style >controls than DCVS controls.
I'm not sure about bzr or hg but I suspect they support the same mechanisms as git. In a DCVS (I use git), the appropriate way to transport changes is with pull/push. I use github as a host for Axiom. After the first clone all else is push/pull. If I like the change I commit, otherwise I reset. Since git uses a crypto-style hashcode I'm guaranteed that I have the correct source tree which matches the host. A git-push or git-pull is blindingly fast even for large changes so managing a large repository (Axiom is about 1/5 the size of Sage) is much more efficient. Given the same changes applied to a git repo and the sourceforge SVN repo I can do the whole git-commit/git-push in the time it takes for the svn commit to print another progress period. Branching in git requires 40 bytes whereas cloning can require 100meg. The disk saving and time saving is significant. For journal purpose I publish the diff-Naur (git-diff) form to the mailing lists but the rest of the work occurs "within the system". I do use the diff-Naur patches against the SVN and CVS copies of Axiom (sourceforge and savannah) despite the fact that git can update those repo styles. Old habits die hard. DCVS is a completely different way of looking at software development. It took a while before I "got it" and started using the branch/push/pull tools properly. Once you understand the ideas it really does change the way you work. I have 20ish branches locally and they take up a minimal amount of space, especially compared to 20 clones. Again, I'm not sure about bzr and hg but I suspect they are equivalent in design. It would be much more lightweight in bandwidth, space, and time if Sage were hosted in a DCVS where users could just do a pull. The real struggle is unlearning the CVS/SVN master site mindset. Tim --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URLs: http://www.sagemath.org -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
