question on difference between bazaar and subversion

[Jeff Schering]

On 4/24/06, Jonathan Riddell <jriddell at ubuntu.com> wrote:
>
> bazaar is distributed which means there's no one server, everyone contributes
> by making their own branch, changing and committing to that then merging that
> branch back in.

Ok.

>It means that even if you don't have access to the
> definitive branch you can just make your own branch, publish it on a web
> server and someone with access can easily merge it in.
But that's possible with the current system. Anyone can get the repos,
make some changes, then post the diffs to a web server and someone
with access to the central repos can merge it in. We have chosen not
to do that  - instead we post the diffs to the mailing list, which is
easier and more convenient for the poster.

Change is good, but we need to make sure that the time and effort
involved in making the change is worth the benefits (if any) of the
change.

Here are few other things we need to consider:

1. Specifically, what problems is the docteam having that will be
solved by a distributed version control system? What anticipated
problems will a distributed system solve?

2. Each docteam member can install a Subversion server on his
computer, make all his commits to that personal server, then whenever
he's ready, upload diffs to a public space for all to import into
their own personal svn servers. How is that workflow different than
bzr? How is bzr better than a network of personal svn servers? If the
docteam hasn't found reason to use distributed personal svn servers to
manage our workflow, what reason do we have to use bzr?

3. According to http://bazaar-vcs.org/TheBigPicture, bzr "is less
effective with tree-structured data (e.g. XML)". What exactly does
"less effective" mean? Reduced functionality? Merging problems? What?

Cheers,
Jeff

--
Jeff Schering
GPG: F23C67E8