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I think it's awesome that people are doing research in the area of version control systems. Even though Git is already pretty great in my opinion, there's alway

I think it's awesome that people are doing research in the area of version control systems. Even though Git is already pretty great in my opinion, there's always stuff that can be done better. I would love to see what the future holds! Anyway, what I find weird about the Pijul project is that they place the barrier to entry so damn high, that it's absolutely not motivating to even give it a try: - The Pijul front page (https://pijul.org https://pijul.org) has a prominent link in the middle that points to their source code hosting service, Nest. That page has always been dog slow. It takes multiple seconds for that page to open, and then it shows me "Not found". Maybe I should log in to view the code? There is a "Sign in" form at the top right of the page, so maybe I should do that. Where's the registration button? - The project got renamed to Anu. A couple of days ago I tried to visit that page (https://anu.dev https://anu.dev), and I wasn't able to find any source code there. I just tried to go there again and the page is offline. - As BlackFingolfin pointed out, the blog post has a "Warning about licenses" at the top. Even though I don't think that's how the GNU GPL works, it's already a big motivator for me to simply close that tab. I do work in the area of data storage myself. Would I want to put myself at legal risk, just because I want to try an experimental VCS? - Why isn't there an official Git mirror of Pijul/Any? Sure, it's awesome if those tools can host themselves, but what about being able to set it up quickly? Pijul/Any is written in Rust. Doesn't Cargo depend on being able to 'git clone' software for it to be installable? I slowly get the feeling that the goal of the Pijul project was never to become popular in any way. To me it seems little more than a hobby project of someone with an interest in version control systems. That's fine I suppose, but my fear is that this current approach is that the existence of this project simply acts as an impediment for truly motivated people to work on the next generation VCS.

richardwhiuk 6y ago
> Doesn't Cargo depend on being able to 'git clone' software for it to be installable? No. The registry is controlled using git, and Cargo allows you to pull in software via git, but Rust projects don't need to be using git.
- steveklabnik 6y ago
  To be a little more explicit about it: * The index of packages on crates.io is stored in a git repository * Cargo knows how to clone that down without you having git installed * The contents of packages are not acquired by doing a git clone; source code is stored in an S3 bucket, and Cargo downloads it directly. * You can have your project depend on a package that lives in a git repository, but you cannot upload a crate to crates.io that depends on a git repository. This means that this feature is mostly useful for end projects and private libraries, not public dependencies.
pmeunier 6y ago
> - The Pijul front page (https://pijul.org https://pijul.org) has a prominent link in the middle that points to their source code hosting service, Nest. That page has always been dog slow. It takes multiple seconds for that page to open, and then it shows me "Not found". Maybe I should log in to view the code? There is a "Sign in" form at the top right of the page, so maybe I should do that. Where's the registration button? The Nest is still experimental (which explains the downtime), but you shouldn't need to sign in order to view any code there. > - The project got renamed to Anu. A couple of days ago I tried to visit that page (https://anu.dev https://anu.dev), and I wasn't able to find any source code there. I just tried to go there again and the page is offline. Right, there have been really strong reactions against that move. As a person who carefully listens to HackerNews and Twitter comments for life advice (as one should), I decided to revert that move. More seriously, I noticed it was distracting from the main point. But then I managed to find another distracting thing, by writing a rant about occurrences of plagiarism that have happened to me, including theft of actual GPL source code, as well as republication of academic papers (in one case, I was fortunate enough to be picked for review). > - As BlackFingolfin pointed out, the blog post has a "Warning about licenses" at the top. Even though I don't think that's how the GNU GPL works, it's already a big motivator for me to simply close that tab. I do work in the area of data storage myself. Would I want to put myself at legal risk, just because I want to try an experimental VCS? That is clearly not what I meant, and I'm deeply sorry about this. > - Why isn't there an official Git mirror of Pijul/Any? Sure, it's awesome if those tools can host themselves, but what about being able to set it up quickly? Pijul/Any is written in Rust. Doesn't Cargo depend on being able to 'git clone' software for it to be installable? Until there are packages in linux distributions, you can get it with `cargo install pijul --version 1.0.0-alpha`. You would need cargo to compile it from source anyway.

richardwhiuk 6y ago

> Doesn't Cargo depend on being able to 'git clone' software for it to be installable? No. The registry is controlled using git, and Cargo allows you to pull in software via git, but Rust projects don't need to be using git.

steveklabnik 6y ago
To be a little more explicit about it: * The index of packages on crates.io is stored in a git repository * Cargo knows how to clone that down without you having git installed * The contents of packages are not acquired by doing a git clone; source code is stored in an S3 bucket, and Cargo downloads it directly. * You can have your project depend on a package that lives in a git repository, but you cannot upload a crate to crates.io that depends on a git repository. This means that this feature is mostly useful for end projects and private libraries, not public dependencies.

pmeunier 6y ago

> - The Pijul front page (https://pijul.org https://pijul.org) has a prominent link in the middle that points to their source code hosting service, Nest. That page has always been dog slow. It takes multiple seconds for that page to open, and then it shows me "Not found". Maybe I should log in to view the code? There is a "Sign in" form at the top right of the page, so maybe I should do that. Where's the registration button? The Nest is still experimental (which explains the downtime), but you shouldn't need to sign in order to view any code there. > - The project got renamed to Anu. A couple of days ago I tried to visit that page (https://anu.dev https://anu.dev), and I wasn't able to find any source code there. I just tried to go there again and the page is offline. Right, there have been really strong reactions against that move. As a person who carefully listens to HackerNews and Twitter comments for life advice (as one should), I decided to revert that move. More seriously, I noticed it was distracting from the main point. But then I managed to find another distracting thing, by writing a rant about occurrences of plagiarism that have happened to me, including theft of actual GPL source code, as well as republication of academic papers (in one case, I was fortunate enough to be picked for review). > - As BlackFingolfin pointed out, the blog post has a "Warning about licenses" at the top. Even though I don't think that's how the GNU GPL works, it's already a big motivator for me to simply close that tab. I do work in the area of data storage myself. Would I want to put myself at legal risk, just because I want to try an experimental VCS? That is clearly not what I meant, and I'm deeply sorry about this. > - Why isn't there an official Git mirror of Pijul/Any? Sure, it's awesome if those tools can host themselves, but what about being able to set it up quickly? Pijul/Any is written in Rust. Doesn't Cargo depend on being able to 'git clone' software for it to be installable? Until there are packages in linux distributions, you can get it with `cargo install pijul --version 1.0.0-alpha`. You would need cargo to compile it from source anyway.