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> I was really surprised that Git "won" because I thought that Mercurial's friendlier CLI and being written in Python would give it an advantage. What we've le

> I was really surprised that Git "won" because I thought that Mercurial's friendlier CLI and being written in Python would give it an advantage. What we've learned is that these two things are actually liabilities. git is a good example that the syntax of the command line is of no consequence. git's CLI is notoriously horrendous and bizarre, yet it didn't stop its adoption. And this is a problem that's easily worked around by creating tools (graphical ones and also porcelaines) around it. The fact that Mercurial is written in Python has a big impact on its performance, and git is running rings around it as a result. When you run tens of commands every day, it adds up. Strangely enough even git's initial hostility to running on Windows didn't stop its adoption. git's features and modeling of source control system is so powerful and flexible that git became successful in spite of all these other aspects. Frankly, I think it's silly to use any other source control these days: embrace git and get used to it because it's going to be around for a while.

lake99 11y ago
> The fact that Mercurial is written in Python has a big impact on its performance, and git is running rings around it as a result. When you run tens of commands every day, it adds up. This wasn't the case at all. In their early years, some operations were faster on git, and others, faster on Mercurial[1]. I don't remember any recent benchmarks, but early last year, there were reports of Facebook making Mercurial faster [2]. > Frankly, I think it's silly to use any other source control these days You might get that impression if your work is centered around github, but I have friends who use enterprise-specific extensions on Mercurial that structure their workflow. [1] http://draketo.de/proj/hg-vs-git-server/test-results.html http://draketo.de/proj/hg-vs-git-server/test-results.html [2] http://www.infoq.com/news/2014/01/facebook-scaling-hg http://www.infoq.com/news/2014/01/facebook-scaling-hg
- zak_mc_kracken 11y ago
  You're not really disputing what I said: Mercurial is much, much slower than Git. Facebook forked it and managed to make it faster but they never released their fork so nobody can actually use it. The bottom line is that a program written in C will always be orders of magnitude faster than a program written in Python. This is not news.
  - digisign 11y ago
    And why parts of it are written in C.
  - lake99 11y ago
    > You're not really disputing what I said: Mercurial is much, much slower than Git. Yes, I am. And I gave a reference for it. > Facebook forked it and managed to make it faster but they never released their fork so nobody can actually use it. I invite you to look up the license that Mercurial is released under. And then I advise you read [3]. And why do you keep making these unsubstantiated claims? > The bottom line is that a program written in C will always be orders of magnitude faster than a program written in Python. This is not news. If we're comparing exactly the same algorithms implemented in both Python and C, C would usually be faster. But we are not discussing the implementation of simple algorithms. We are talking about complex software, with different architectures. [3] https://code.facebook.com/posts/218678814984400/scaling-mercurial-at-facebook/ https://code.facebook.com/posts/218678814984400/scaling-merc...
s73v3r 11y ago
"The fact that Mercurial is written in Python has a big impact on its performance, and git is running rings around it as a result. When you run tens of commands every day, it adds up." No, it doesn't.

lake99 11y ago

> The fact that Mercurial is written in Python has a big impact on its performance, and git is running rings around it as a result. When you run tens of commands every day, it adds up. This wasn't the case at all. In their early years, some operations were faster on git, and others, faster on Mercurial[1]. I don't remember any recent benchmarks, but early last year, there were reports of Facebook making Mercurial faster [2]. > Frankly, I think it's silly to use any other source control these days You might get that impression if your work is centered around github, but I have friends who use enterprise-specific extensions on Mercurial that structure their workflow. [1] http://draketo.de/proj/hg-vs-git-server/test-results.html http://draketo.de/proj/hg-vs-git-server/test-results.html [2] http://www.infoq.com/news/2014/01/facebook-scaling-hg http://www.infoq.com/news/2014/01/facebook-scaling-hg

zak_mc_kracken 11y ago
You're not really disputing what I said: Mercurial is much, much slower than Git. Facebook forked it and managed to make it faster but they never released their fork so nobody can actually use it. The bottom line is that a program written in C will always be orders of magnitude faster than a program written in Python. This is not news.
- digisign 11y ago
  And why parts of it are written in C.
- lake99 11y ago
  > You're not really disputing what I said: Mercurial is much, much slower than Git. Yes, I am. And I gave a reference for it. > Facebook forked it and managed to make it faster but they never released their fork so nobody can actually use it. I invite you to look up the license that Mercurial is released under. And then I advise you read [3]. And why do you keep making these unsubstantiated claims? > The bottom line is that a program written in C will always be orders of magnitude faster than a program written in Python. This is not news. If we're comparing exactly the same algorithms implemented in both Python and C, C would usually be faster. But we are not discussing the implementation of simple algorithms. We are talking about complex software, with different architectures. [3] https://code.facebook.com/posts/218678814984400/scaling-mercurial-at-facebook/ https://code.facebook.com/posts/218678814984400/scaling-merc...

s73v3r 11y ago

"The fact that Mercurial is written in Python has a big impact on its performance, and git is running rings around it as a result. When you run tens of commands every day, it adds up." No, it doesn't.