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0 pointsxg157mo ago0 comments

> People should use the VCS that's appropriate for their project rather than insist on git everywhere.

Disagree. I really like the "de-facto standard" that git has become for open source. It means if I want to understand some new project's source code, there is one less hassle for me to deal with: I don't need to learn any new concepts just to access the source code and all the tooling is already right there.

The situation we have with package managers, dependency managers and package managers for package managers is worse enough. I really don't want a world in which every language or every project also comes with its own version control system and remote repo infrastructure.

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flohofwoe7mo ago

A "proper" versioning system doesn't need to be learned since you literally only need a handful of straightforward operations (how do I get the latest version? how do I add a file? how do I commit changes?) - in svn that's 'svn update', 'svn add' and 'svn commit', that's all what's needed to get you through the day, no 'push', no 'staging area', no 'fetch' vs 'pull' and the inevitable merge-vs-rebase discussion... etc etc etc...)

It's only git which has this fractal feature set which requires expert knowledge to untangle.

xg15OP7mo ago

But if all systems are so similar anyway, why would you need "the right tool for the job"?

If nothing else, you have to install it. There will also be subtle differences between concepts, e.g. git and svn both have versions and branches, but the concepts behave differently. I don't know about Mercurial, but I'm sure they have their own quirks as well.

Also, tooling: I have a VSCode plugin that visualizes the entire graph structure of a git repo really nicely. Right now, I can use that on 99% of all repos to get an overview of the branches, last commits, activity, etc.

If version systems were fragmented, I'd have to look for equivalent tools for every versioning system separately - if they exist at all. More likely, I'd be restricted just to the on-board tools of every system.

trinix9127mo ago

> But if all systems are so similar anyway, why would you need "the right tool for the job"?

They’re similar in the UI but the underlying architecture is vastly different, to accomplish different goals - sometimes what you want is an entirely centralized VCS, decentralized VCS, or a mix of both.

As for the tooling, any decent IDE supports different systems equally well. With IntelliJ I can use Git, SVN, and even CVS through the same UI. But yes, VSCode plugin XYZ doesn’t.

madeofpalk7mo ago

In the same way some might be discouraged from contributing to a project because they don't know the language well enough, I've given up on contributing to projects because I couldn't figure out mercurial, and I didn't care enough about the contribution to learn it.

SoftTalker7mo ago

Monocultures can be convenient but are ultimately unhealthy.

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