Subject: Distributed vs Centralised SCM? - by: robertc

I'd be interested in feedback from others on this subject, and particularly comparing and contrasting the use of distributed tools such as git and mercurial (and others) vs their more centralised brethren, be they open source (subversion) or commercial.

The requirements for developing something like Linux are certainly different to those for many commercial organisations IMO.

Some of this comes from comments on the posting I made about an upcoming BCS CMSG talk on 25 Nov in London (which directly addresses the theme):

http://www.cmcrossroads.com/forums?func=view&catid=73&id=100374#100380

Thoughts?

View the original article here

Subject: Event 2010-10-25: Distributed Version Control - by: robertc

@vinnyjames I realise you're just promoting your product, but absolutist statements like your's are plainly wrong and do not reflect well on your organisation. You cannot know what is right for all organisations. Making these statements makes you look like a one trick pony--"The answer is Subversion MultiSite. Now, what was the question?".

The synopsis does not call Subversion 'monolithic' it say's Dan's organisation's Subversion repository was centralised and monolithic, which it may well have been. I think he's better placed to make that observation than you.

It is equally silly, hysterical, and ill-informed to say DVCS are "disparate silos of data..." stored on "laptops and ad-hoc servers". It really depends on how you manage your system.

Oh, and a company's IP is all over laptops etc. with Subversion (or don't you allow working copies on laptops?). (And I assume that you're aware of the moves to make Subversion working copies maintain local history---a little like DVCS?)

If you're going to plug your product on unrelated threads (this was an event announcement, not an advocacy piece), at least do it in a way that reflects well on you, it, and your organisation.

View the original article here

Subject: Event 2010-10-25: Distributed Version Control - by: robertc

Presented by Dan North, Agile troublemaker, developer and originator of BDD

This is a joint event with the BCS Open Source SG.

Synopsis
Big organisations like to centralise. They like the control and management of centralised services. Distributed source code management (DSCM) systems such as git and mercurial represent a potentially disruptive shift in version control. Dan has been using DSCMs for his personal projects for a couple of years now, and recently his company - a 500 person trading firm - took the decision to embrace DSCM and begin the migration towards git from its centralised, monolithic Subversion repository.

In this talk, Dan outlines some of the differences between centralised and distributed version control systems, from a technical, social and organisational perspective, and describes some of the challenges of migrating towards and using DSCM successfully in a commercial setting.

www.bcs-cmsg.org.uk/events/2010-11-25.html

View the original article here