kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Cirilo Bernardo <cirilo_bernardo@xxxxxxxxx>]

>________________________________
> From: James Hagerman <james.hagerman@xxxxxxxxx>
>To: Chris Morgan <chmorgan@xxxxxxxxx> 
>Cc: "kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
>Sent: Tuesday, February 4, 2014 1:00 PM
>Subject: Re: [Kicad-developers] Revisiting the Git decision (I come in peace! - with a patch)
> 
>
>
>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The KiCad website and KiCad Launchpad page are full of broken or misleading links to old, outdated, or conflicting information.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
>
>
>


I agree with that. There were just so many things going on and no one found time
to work on the information on the web pages. I'd volunteer to do something, but
making web pages which look good is probably one of my weakest points.

As for bzr vs git, git and bzr do many things differently and the fact that bzr
is no longer actively maintained is not really a problem. Bzr obviously works well
already and unless there's one specific feature in git which we need or where the
bzr implementation is just awful in comparison, why bother moving? If a dev is
really struggling working with bzr, I'd have serious doubts about their abilities
anyway. Personally I've been on too many projects where people have wasted time
switching VCS. I'd vote for leaving the project on bzr until (1) launchpad moves
to git and provides tested migration tools or (2) we change hosts.

Anyway, getting back to web pages, I can work on instructions for
Debian Wheezy + Sid. Since I don't want to hijack a thread, I'll send out
another post.

- Cirilo