[development] FAQ: Why is Drupal still using CVS when X is a much better choice?

[Adrian Simmons]

Gerhard Killesreiter wrote:
> Well, then we just can stay with CVS. IMO SVN's features aren't that
> vastly superior to spend much effort on moving.
That's absolutely true for Drupal core :)

But it's not true for contrib. And what we I think we all mean when we talk 
about drupal.org moving to a different VCS is *contrib moving*.

Karoly Negyesi wrote:
 > SVN tools are available. SVN is mature and documentation is plentiful. 
svn > 1.5 added merge tracking for (much) better team work.

I'd add that the two most attractive features of DVCS systems - better merge 
algorithms and offline commits - can be achieved by people using SVK in 
conjunction with SVN.

Derek Wright wrote:
 > A) How do "we" decide which RCS to move to
Someone could sit down with a list of our needs and do a point by point 
analysis of what the various VCS and DVCS would provide or not but really 
Karoly hits the nail on the head: "If we move, we move to SVN". There isn't 
another viable choice.
So that's A) dealt with ;)

 > D) Do we leave open the possibility that each project on d.o can choose if
 > it wants CVS or XXX?  Do we provide multiple alternatives (svn + git?).
Someone can correct me but I think all of the DVCS possibilities can 
integrate quite well with SVN, once you've provided SVN there's little 
benefit to providing anything else.


Just imagine this is written in a few months:
 > C) Do we move everything at once, or do we just move core to the new
 > thing, and leave contrib with CVS as an interim measure to prevent
 > large-scale, simultaneous catastrophe on all sides?

Core doesn't *need* to move, there's no benefit to moving it first, it 
doesn't even provide much of a comparison to contrib in terms of numbers of 
commiters and their competence. I think really you'd have to select a subset 
of contrib modules (I'm sure there'd be no shortage of volunteers) to move 
first.

-- 
Adrian Simmons (aka adrinux) <http://perlucida.com>
e-mail <mailto:adrinux at perlucida.com>