kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[James Hagerman <james.hagerman@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi there,

I've been lurking and haven't gotten into the KiCad source code yet. I
joined the dev list to get help with building under OS X. This bzr/git
debate is something I've been wondering about as well.

I initially had issues installing bzr and bzr-tools under OS X. I tried
using the KiCad Homebrew installer and it installed bzr and bzr-tools for
me and then compiled KiCad. I know nothing of bzr on other platforms.

Honestly: I don't think switching to git is actually going to solve the
REAL issue behind why new devs want to see KiCad move to git. I think it's
mostly a _documentation_ issue.

The KiCad website and KiCad Launchpad page are full of broken or misleading
links to old, outdated, or conflicting information. Binaries (and
libraries) for all platforms are not readily available on either site.

There is no simple, one stop location for documentation. It's spread
through forums, email chains, bug reports, old email archives (left over
from sourceforge), and a random slurry of blog posts by randoms all over
the web.

One solution to the bzr/git debate could be: Spend time fixing up the KiCad
sites. Name some to the task. Shove all the git/bzr back-and-forth into one
place while ALSO providing the rest of the info newcomers (devs or users)
need to get rolling.

Besides, a GitHub fork DOES exist and was being updated pretty regularly
when I last checked... If bzr WAS a boundary to new devs, they'd all just
start working off of that git fork and drop bzr on it's ass regardless...
But that hasn't happened...

Just my 3cents,
James Hagerman


On Mon, Feb 3, 2014 at 11:37 AM, Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxxxx>
 wrote:

> On 2/2/2014 9:16 AM, Mitch Davis wrote:
> > On Sat, Feb 1, 2014 at 10:40 PM, Joel Holdsworth
> > <joel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >> discouraged by the friction.
> >
> > Amen.
> >
> > Mitch.
> >
>
> Is using Bazaar really enough "friction" (your word not mine) to prevent
> developers from contributing to KiCad?  I hope not.  That would be a
> very sad commentary indeed.  In the 25 years or so of software
> development, I've used almost every open source and quite a few
> proprietary VCSs.  I never found any of them that difficult to learn (at
> least as far as the client is concerned) to use it as an excuse for not
> contributing to a project.  If I thought for a second that switching to
> GIT would make life significantly easier or bring a flood of new highly
> skilled developers to the project, I would agree to it in a heartbeat.
> Either I am not that naive or too stubborn change just for the sake of
> the latest and greatest VCS.  The question to ask should not be whether
> or not to use GIT, it should be which tool best serves the needs of the
> project.  As long as we host the project on Launchpad, Bazaar is
> probably the best fit unless all of the Launchpad specific tools in
> Bazaar have been ported to GIT.  If they have, I haven't seen them so
> please point me in the right direction so I can test them.  We have so
> many more important issues to resolve than keeping up with the latest
> VCS.  For those who weren't around for the transition from
> Subversion/SourceForge to Bazaar/Launchpad, there was a lot of hand
> holding required for several months by the lead developers.  I
> personally am not ready to go through that again any time soon.  While I
> agree that the lack of development on Bazaar is not a good thing, it
> doesn't mean that we should immediately abandoned ship a switch to GIT.
>  What happens when GIT matures to the point where development slows down
> or the next great VCS becomes more popular than GIT?  Do we kick it to
> the curb and jump on the next "great" thing?  If someone can provide
> quantifiable data that GIT will speed up development and/or bring more
> developers in the project, I would be willing to open up the discussion
> again.
>
> Wayne
>
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>

On Mon, Feb 3, 2014 at 5:19 PM, Chris Morgan <chmorgan@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> On Mon, Feb 3, 2014 at 2:37 PM, Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
> > On 2/2/2014 9:16 AM, Mitch Davis wrote:
> >> On Sat, Feb 1, 2014 at 10:40 PM, Joel Holdsworth
> >> <joel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >>> discouraged by the friction.
> >>
> >> Amen.
> >>
> >> Mitch.
> >>
> >
> > Is using Bazaar really enough "friction" (your word not mine) to prevent
> > developers from contributing to KiCad?  I hope not.  That would be a
> > very sad commentary indeed.
>
> I'm in the same boat with vcs. I've used pvcs, cvs, svn, clearcase and
> git and I'd like to think I know them very well.
>
> I'd like to add (or re-add since this is a new thread and I've brought
> this up before) my vote for git.
>
> Bazaar was too much friction for me and kept me from being able to get
> started and contribute to the project.
>
> Chris
>
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