Brief article on benchmarks of Python repository with leading DVCSen

[Ben Finney]

Daniel Watkins <daniel at daniel-watkins.co.uk> writes:

> On Thu, 2009-02-12 at 02:27 +0900, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
> > Footnotes: 
> > [1] In fact some of the more conservative folks wanted "nothing
> > that isn't in Debian stable", in which case Bazaar is just SOL.
> 
> Things should be slightly better on that front as of Saturday.
> However, as Python 2.6 won't hit Debian stable until squeeze
> (lenny+1), I find this a little hard to swallow...

I find it quite easy to swallow; it's a sensible distinction.

A programming language interpreter, to me, is a tool, just as a VCS
is. If my OS provider makes a particular version of the tool available
in their stable release, that's the version of the tool I want to use;
asking me to use a later version essentially asks me to maintain it
separately on my system and fail to benefit from all the checking and
updating my OS vendor is doing on their version of the tool.

For the developers of Python itself, though, Python is the *project*
on which they're working; whether the OS vendor makes a particular
version of Python available is less important when deciding what to
install. The VCS, on the other hand, *is* “just” a tool for these
people, as it is for me; and it makes sense for them to strongly
prefer to stick with whatever version of that tool is released in the
OS vendor's stable release.

-- 
 \        “Somebody told me how frightening it was how much topsoil we |
  `\   are losing each year, but I told that story around the campfire |
_o__)                             and nobody got scared.” —Jack Handey |
Ben Finney