Why does Bazaar download so much data for a small change?

[Nicholas Allen]

Matt Nordhoff wrote:
> Nicholas Allen wrote:
>   
>> Seeing as the user may pull from this when first trying out Bazaar I
>> think it would be good for Bazaar's image if it used the format that
>> gave the best performance.
>>     
>
> Which is worse, bad performance or "Unrecognized repository format"? ;-)
>   
I see the unrecognized repository format as a feature! It will encourage 
user to upgrade their Bazaar. If you always maintain backwards 
compatibility then most users probably won't upgrade. Upgrading is not a 
painful or difficult process so this would be a good way to make sure 
the user base is using a fairly recent version of Bazaar. This may also 
help prevent the image of Bazaar being a slow VCS from spreading too much.

Of course if the format is unrecognized Bazaar should then let the user 
know that they need to upgrade to a newer version of Bazaar and provide 
a link to the download page.

Cheers,

Nick