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Always nice to read a new retelling of this old story. TFA throws some shade at how "a single get of the office repo took some hours" then elides the fact that

Always nice to read a new retelling of this old story. TFA throws some shade at how "a single get of the office repo took some hours" then elides the fact that such an operation was practically impossible to do on git at all without creating a new file system (VFS). Perforce let users check out just the parts of a repo that they needed, so I assume most SD users did that instead of getting every app in the Office suite every time. VFS basically closes that gap on git ("VFS for Git only downloads objects as they are needed"). Perforce/SD were great for the time and for the centralised VCS use case, but the world has moved on I guess.

daemin 1y ago
Some companies have developed their own technology like VFS for use with Perforce, so you can check out the entire suite of applications but only pull the files when you try to access them in a specific way. This is a lot more important in game development where massive source binary assets are stored along side text files. It uses the same technology that's built into Windows that the remote drive programs (probably) use. Personally I kind of still want some sort of server based VCS which can store your entire companies set of source without needing to keep the entire history locally when you check out something. But unfortunately git is still good enough to use on an ad-hoc basis between machines for me that I don't feel the need to set up a central server and CI/CD pipeline yet. Also being able to stash, stage hunks, and interactively rebase commits are features that I like and work well with the way I work.
- sixothree 1y ago
  Doesn’t SVN let you check out and commit any folder or file at any depth of a project you choose? Maybe not the checkouts and commit, but that log history for a single subtree is something I miss from the SVN tooling.
  - gilbertbw 1y ago
    Can you not achieve the log history on a subtree with `git log my/subfolder/`? Tools like TortoiseGit let you right click on a folder and view the log of changes to it.
    - daemin 1y ago
      Yes it can, but the point is that in a git repo you store the entire history locally, so whenever you clone a repo, you clone its history on at least one branch. So when you have a repo that's hundreds of GB in size, the entire history can be massive.
  - int_19h 1y ago
    You can indeed. The problem with this strategy is that now you need to maintain the list of directories that needs to be checked out to build each project. And unless this is automated somehow, the documentation will gradually diverge from reality.
    - deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
noitpmeder 1y ago
My firm still uses perforce and I can't say anyone likes it at this point. You can almost see the light leaves the eyes of new hires when you tell them we don't use git like the rest of the world.
- kccqzy 1y ago
  I cannot believe that new hires would be upset by the choice of version control software. They joined a new company after so many hoops and it's on them for having an open mind towards processes and tools in the new company.
  - axus 1y ago
    If companies don't cater to the whims of the youth, they'd have to hire... old people
    - xeromal 1y ago
      e-gad!
    - Tostino 1y ago
      But those cost so much more!
      - bongodongobob 1y ago
        But they are Analysts and know corporate speak and are really good at filling their schedules with meetings! They must be so busy doing very meaningful work!
  - DanielHB 1y ago
    I almost cried of happiness when we moved to git from SVN on my first job after being there for 6 months They might not be upset on the first few weeks but after a month or so they will be familiar with the pain.
    - 1y ago
swsieber 1y ago
I'm a bit surprised git doesn't offer a way to checkout only specific parts of the git tree to be honest. It seems like it'd be pretty easy to graft on with an intermediate service that understands object files, etc.
- jjmarr 1y ago
  It's existed for a while. Partial clones and LFS. https://git-scm.com/docs/partial-clone https://git-scm.com/docs/partial-clone
  - swsieber 1y ago
    Thanks!
socalgal2 1y ago
VFS does not replace Perforce. Most AAA game companies still use Perforce. In particular, they need locks on assets so two people don't edit them at the same time and have an unmergable change and wasted time as one artist has to throw their work away

daemin 1y ago

Some companies have developed their own technology like VFS for use with Perforce, so you can check out the entire suite of applications but only pull the files when you try to access them in a specific way. This is a lot more important in game development where massive source binary assets are stored along side text files. It uses the same technology that's built into Windows that the remote drive programs (probably) use. Personally I kind of still want some sort of server based VCS which can store your entire companies set of source without needing to keep the entire history locally when you check out something. But unfortunately git is still good enough to use on an ad-hoc basis between machines for me that I don't feel the need to set up a central server and CI/CD pipeline yet. Also being able to stash, stage hunks, and interactively rebase commits are features that I like and work well with the way I work.

sixothree 1y ago
Doesn’t SVN let you check out and commit any folder or file at any depth of a project you choose? Maybe not the checkouts and commit, but that log history for a single subtree is something I miss from the SVN tooling.
- gilbertbw 1y ago
  Can you not achieve the log history on a subtree with `git log my/subfolder/`? Tools like TortoiseGit let you right click on a folder and view the log of changes to it.
  - daemin 1y ago
    Yes it can, but the point is that in a git repo you store the entire history locally, so whenever you clone a repo, you clone its history on at least one branch. So when you have a repo that's hundreds of GB in size, the entire history can be massive.
- int_19h 1y ago
  You can indeed. The problem with this strategy is that now you need to maintain the list of directories that needs to be checked out to build each project. And unless this is automated somehow, the documentation will gradually diverge from reality.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]

noitpmeder 1y ago

My firm still uses perforce and I can't say anyone likes it at this point. You can almost see the light leaves the eyes of new hires when you tell them we don't use git like the rest of the world.

kccqzy 1y ago
I cannot believe that new hires would be upset by the choice of version control software. They joined a new company after so many hoops and it's on them for having an open mind towards processes and tools in the new company.
- axus 1y ago
  If companies don't cater to the whims of the youth, they'd have to hire... old people
  - xeromal 1y ago
    e-gad!
  - Tostino 1y ago
    But those cost so much more!
    - bongodongobob 1y ago
      But they are Analysts and know corporate speak and are really good at filling their schedules with meetings! They must be so busy doing very meaningful work!
- DanielHB 1y ago
  I almost cried of happiness when we moved to git from SVN on my first job after being there for 6 months They might not be upset on the first few weeks but after a month or so they will be familiar with the pain.
  - 1y ago

swsieber 1y ago

I'm a bit surprised git doesn't offer a way to checkout only specific parts of the git tree to be honest. It seems like it'd be pretty easy to graft on with an intermediate service that understands object files, etc.

jjmarr 1y ago
It's existed for a while. Partial clones and LFS. https://git-scm.com/docs/partial-clone https://git-scm.com/docs/partial-clone
- swsieber 1y ago
  Thanks!

socalgal2 1y ago

VFS does not replace Perforce. Most AAA game companies still use Perforce. In particular, they need locks on assets so two people don't edit them at the same time and have an unmergable change and wasted time as one artist has to throw their work away