Switch from svn to git without redownloading everything?

[Thrashard96]

so fix it

[Destructavator]

so fix it

A bit easier said than done, I'd think.

I noticed that there are portable versions of the Git software for Windows, I would imagine that with some work that could be used in a new package, but Muton would really have to answer that.

[bayo]

Yeaa, Git looks not very good for Windows.

[Destructavator]

Yeaa, Git looks not very good for Windows.

I have to agree - I think the move from SVN to Git was a mistake, one that really shafted potential and current Windows developers, and I agree with Kildor's viewpoint on the matter.

Git is only partially working software, clunky and buggy as hell on the Windows platform.  Myself, I can get the portable Git working but the Tortoise Git corrupts Windows Explorer on my system and makes my Windows installation very unstable - I was forced to erase the hard drive and restore everything from a backup.

I should have spoke up about this before, but the move to Git really should have been planned better and researched before being done, so that the coders would realize that much of the Git system hasn't been implemented at all on Win32 (many commands not yet supported), and the move is a rather bad mistake.

As of right now I still can't commit any updates, and I have issues just updating a downloaded "working" copy.

I won't threaten to leave this project, but this poor decision really is a big shot in the ass for Windows people, and will drive away many people who would want to become developers or contributors.

Before any of you coders respond to that, please keep in mind that the vast majority of people who have and use computers use Windows - just look at the stats.  Very few people really use Linux, which is really the only OS I know of where Git really works very much at all.  If I didn't know better, I'd almost say this move to Git was made by a bunch of Linux-heads who don't care about the majority of people who use Windows and feel that all the Windows guys may as well go do something to themselves.

SVN on Windows has become mature and on all my computers is fairly rock-solid, not only with Tortoise SVN, but other apps I tried as well.

Git, on the other hand - Well, I just can't recommend this godawful rubbish Git software to anyone, unless they are working on a Linux-only software project that isn't applicable for Windows.

If we had waited until Git was actually working for Windows, until it became mature, that would have been different.

Last, I *still* fail to see any real benefit of moving to Git, so far it has only f***ed things up.  The decision should have been planned, thought out, and researched better.

[bayo]

At my work i install msysgit to check it. And now when i work with Java iv got very strange error message like "fatal: Not a git repository (or any of the parent directories): .git". Kind of message really out of the scope from what i am doing. Anyway i dont care, i can uninstall it when i want, but this software is really not yet ready.

*still* fail to see any real benefit

As it is already said, u dont need to use branches, or merge thing, or do some advenced things like that, then you will never see any benefit :-) But it can help you for debuging.

[O01eg]

Also, git doesn't support resume for fetch and clone and cann't be suitable for such big repository as this.

[Destructavator]

Should we start a poll and dedicated thread on what would be a better choice?

Sourceforge supports a number of different version controls systems, not just Git and SVN.

Whatever we use, I think it would make more sense to use something that's mature in development - something that has been around for a while and not something new - and has stable, rock-solid implementation and full support on all major Operating System platforms.

[Thrashard96]

i agree, the svn was better, because there is muton's tool.

[bayo]

+1 we should use CVS

[Muton]

I want to break a lance for Mattn
The move to git was the right thing to do
Merging code is a torture under svn
merging a fork is

The older MsysGIT was bugged the new 1.7.? does its job
and adding Git was not a software problem.
Its a Layer8 problem, but thats normal for a Svn->Git move

I stuck because i dont know what mattn is doing/planing
C::B support seems to be dropped and native MinGW compiling isnt possible

[Destructavator]

I want to break a lance for Mattn
The move to git was the right thing to do
Merging code is a torture under svn
merging a fork is

The older MsysGIT was bugged the new 1.7.? does its job
and adding Git was not a software problem.
Its a Layer8 problem, but thats normal for a Svn->Git move

I stuck because i dont know what mattn is doing/planing
C::B support seems to be dropped and native MinGW compiling isnt possible

Well, even if the old system made merging a pain, the new one seems worse - not only can I still not commit any changes yet (I'm still fighting with this awful software), but I can't even get a read-only copy to update once in a while.  Even if I don't make any commits or changes at all, it will only update once or twice before bombing with errors and becoming useless, forcing me to delete the whole directory and re-download the whole thing again.  I've tried everything from fetch, to rebase, to pull, to using other third-party "helper" utils and I still can't make it work.  Oh, and BTW, yes, I have been reading guides and documentation, so I'm not some ignorant character who can't make it work simply because they don't read instructions.

There are other alternatives that SF servers support, for example Mercurial, although I admit I haven't researched all of them - but there's much more than just SVN, CVS, and Git.

I'm really hoping Mattn will read this thread and soon tell us what the game plan will be.  Yes, I've also noticed the Windows compiling/build and other support really go down the toilet recently.  The move to Git is just another example of this trend.

[H-Hour]

I use Windows and have no problem using the Gitbash interface that comes with whatever it is we were told to download (msysgit I think, but the program is called GitBash on my system - shows you how little I know about this stuff). You're right, TortoiseGIT is not really mature yet, but you don't need it either. It does the few things that it's really helpful for Windows users to have (selecting several different files in a folder rather than performing adding via command line, for instance). The rest is just as simple (actually, I would say more simple) via the command line interface: fetching and pushing. I use TortoiseGIT as little as possible (basically, I add new files and create a commit only with it).

For artists -- whether sound, model or mapping -- distributed control systems like this are often much more complicated than needed, for the simple reason that it's unlikely that one person will be working on the reverb while another completes the guitar riffs, or I will be painting the head on a body model while someone else paints the shoes. We don't need simultaneous access to single files and a system that can manage simultaenous changes. But that's exactly what the coders need, and for that merging and all the other stuff is incredibly important.

Yes, I've also noticed the Windows compiling/build and other support really go down the toilet recently.

Of course when a major change like this happens that renders several tools non-functioning, it will take a while to bring them back up to speed. The same thing has happened in non-Windows areas, like the web-based info on licensing used for GPL'ing textures, the map-get.py script, etc. Yet many of them are already back online, and entirely new build systems are being put in place now.

[Thrashard96]

+1 SVN

[Mattn]

i don't think the git move was wrong. and i don't think git is bugged or anything like that, i'm using the official git installer and it works fine on win32.

also the git move was researched before. i've looked at some other dvcs before we decided to use git. for those of you who are "only" fetching the latest dev version from the repo: you don't even have to compile (use the nightly build binaries), nor checkin - so where is the problem? and yes, maybe some of you find svn easier than git - but a vcs is there to support the devs - and git is more advanced than svn to help every dev who knows how to handle it. i've never said it wouldn't need some learning - but i've always said that it's worth it.

also i don't see why this step should screw new contributors? getting the source, creating a patch, submit a patch. it's in no way different from the svn workflow, isn't it? (it's just git format-patch and not svn diff)

[Mattn]

@Muton: C::B is not yet dropped, but i would like to drop it. what is the exact problem with mingw compilation? (or is it "only" about the static libs?)