4 ms·

When I read comments like this, I feel sad. Between the lines I always read a resignation to design choices that create unnecessary accidental complexity amd ar

When I read comments like this, I feel sad. Between the lines I always read a resignation to design choices that create unnecessary accidental complexity amd are an obvious step backwards compared to other version control systems, even ones that came before. Competing systems like Mercurial, Plastic or fossil are a simple proof by existence for this claim. Yet there is some snobbery/mysticism around git that makes any meaningful evolution in this space impossible.

ajross 6y ago
Quoted without comment: > When I read comments like this, I feel sad. Between the lines I always read a resignation to design choices that create unnecessary accidental complexity amd are an obvious step backwards compared to other version control systems, even ones that came before. Competing systems like Mercurial, Plastic or fossil are a simple proof by existence for this claim And then IMMEDIATELY: > Yet there is some snobbery/mysticism around git
fao_ 6y ago
> Competing systems like Mercurial To clone Mozilla Firefox, Mercurial requires you have more than 2 Gigabytes of RAM. Not Firefox, Mercurial. Simply because the version history is so large, it requires over 2 Gigabytes of working memory to properly interact with enough to put a current clone of the repo on your computer.
- gmueckl 6y ago
  As long as we're sharing anecdotes: I've seen Mercurial used very successfully with much, much larger repositories than Firefox and I'm fully aware that Firefox is already big. I don't know how big the full repositories were, but I am assuming at least several TB. I have never seen git getting pushed that far and I have no idea how it would behave then. My guess is that it would slow down a lot, but at least not fail entirely.
- jononor 6y ago
  I belive the entire Windows codebase is in a git monorepo now, for some years: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/bharry/the-largest-git-repo-on-the-planet/ https://devblogs.microsoft.com/bharry/the-largest-git-repo-o...
  - tsimionescu 6y ago
    Yes, but that's with a MS-specific extension to Git, which I don't remember if they ever upstreamed - one that allows partial clone and partial chekcout if I remeber correctly.
    - fao_ 6y ago
      Partial checkout already exists: `git clone --depth 1 <url>` Of course you mean, only one small repo -- but the more git-like strategy is to specifically use submodules
- zabzonk 6y ago
  What developers these days don't have at least 8Gb of RAM?
  - fao_ 6y ago
    People who like smaller systems? Or are poor?

ajross 6y ago

Quoted without comment: > When I read comments like this, I feel sad. Between the lines I always read a resignation to design choices that create unnecessary accidental complexity amd are an obvious step backwards compared to other version control systems, even ones that came before. Competing systems like Mercurial, Plastic or fossil are a simple proof by existence for this claim And then IMMEDIATELY: > Yet there is some snobbery/mysticism around git

fao_ 6y ago

> Competing systems like Mercurial To clone Mozilla Firefox, Mercurial requires you have more than 2 Gigabytes of RAM. Not Firefox, Mercurial. Simply because the version history is so large, it requires over 2 Gigabytes of working memory to properly interact with enough to put a current clone of the repo on your computer.

gmueckl 6y ago
As long as we're sharing anecdotes: I've seen Mercurial used very successfully with much, much larger repositories than Firefox and I'm fully aware that Firefox is already big. I don't know how big the full repositories were, but I am assuming at least several TB. I have never seen git getting pushed that far and I have no idea how it would behave then. My guess is that it would slow down a lot, but at least not fail entirely.
jononor 6y ago
I belive the entire Windows codebase is in a git monorepo now, for some years: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/bharry/the-largest-git-repo-on-the-planet/ https://devblogs.microsoft.com/bharry/the-largest-git-repo-o...
- tsimionescu 6y ago
  Yes, but that's with a MS-specific extension to Git, which I don't remember if they ever upstreamed - one that allows partial clone and partial chekcout if I remeber correctly.
  - fao_ 6y ago
    Partial checkout already exists: `git clone --depth 1 <url>` Of course you mean, only one small repo -- but the more git-like strategy is to specifically use submodules
zabzonk 6y ago
What developers these days don't have at least 8Gb of RAM?
- fao_ 6y ago
  People who like smaller systems? Or are poor?