Re: [Axiom-developer] build-improvements on cygwin

[Ben Collins-Sussman]

On 29 Nov 2006 00:45:01 +0100, Gabriel Dos Reis
<address@hidden> wrote:

> I would think so; but I would very much welcome Ben's input here about
> the best way to avoid the duplicate trees (maybe keep history only
> after the repopulation?)

After reading the history of your project.... cvs, svn, svk, arch....
my head is truly spinning!

I hate to say this, but I think it's time to stop trying to use
multiple version control systems and multiple hosting services.  If I
were running your project, I'd just 'stop the madness' and start
fresh.   Completely start over.   By that, I mean:

 1. choose ONE hosting service
 2. choose ONE version control system
 3. import just the LATEST trunk code into that system (no history!)

Start coding against your latest codebase.   If for some reason you
need to access history (look at an old branch or tag, or diff against
an old file), then dig out the older version control system and peer
into it.

Shocking statement:  you really don't need your code history as much
as you think you do.  In the scenario I'm advocating, your history
isn't even gone, it's just not super-convenient to access.  Weigh that
slight inconvenience against the *monstrous* headaches you guys have
been going through trying to get svn/svk/arch to work together and
sync around.  Your version control tool is supposed to be helpful for
collaboration and stay out of the way of your work.  From where I'm
sitting, it seems like your project is spending 80% of its energy just
trying to battle various SCM tools.  Enough is enough!  Choose one,
start fresh, move on!

(Case study:  Subversion itself was initially developed in CVS for
more than a year.  When it came time to become 'self-hosting', we
hadn't yet developed the cvs2svn history-conversion tool, and we
started freaking out about not taking our code history with us into
the new system.  In the end, we just didn't bother.  It turns out it
just didn't matter;  we never *once* had to go back and grab anything
from the old CVS repository... thought it was nice to know it was
there if we needed to look something up.)