DVCS comparison for our organisation: decided

Ian Clatworthy ian.clatworthy at internode.on.net
Tue Oct 16 09:22:17 BST 2007


Ben Finney wrote:

> For our purposes, it's very important that cold startup be fast. If
> the command takes a long time to do a cognitively simple task —
> whatever the reason — then the user is going to subconsciously put off
> future invocations of the tool just that bit longer, sometimes to the
> detriment of the purpose of version tracking. Fast startup time is
> *very* important to make using the tool a natural part of workflow,
> rather than a chore to be worked around, even for a few minutes.

Ah - I think I misunderstood what you meant by cold startup then. If you
meant 'typing at the command line' as opposed to being inside a 'bzr
shell', then we totally agree.

> So, if Bazaar is inherently slow for very simple operations, then
> whatever the technical reason, it disqualifies itself from our
> evaluation. If "loads more libraries" is the cause, perhaps libraries
> should be loaded only when it's clear they'll be needed.

Indeed that's what we do.

> A tool that is optimised for the common cases will be used far more
> readily by our target user base than one that loads a great deal of
> functionality that is not needed for most invocations.

For common operations, our aim is to be a second or less as a guide. I'm
curious as to how slow you found it to be. If the information is allowed
to be shared, how many files are in your working tree?

Ian C.



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