What to do when there are so many version control systems?

Question

Do you use many version control software (TortoiseSVN, Bazaar Explorer, smartgit etc)?

One software that supports all version control systems (cvs, svn, bzr, git etc)? Which?

Do you keep converting between them (I imagine me converting gif -> jpg -> gif -> jpg...)?

UPDATE:

If I pick one, do I really have to give up contributing to all software that use the other ones?

Converting between graphic formats results in image quality loss. I'm feeling weird about converting between version control systems. Like if I did there would be a problem. — Delirium tremens, Jun 11 '10 at 22:13
Converting between version control systems would lose all history, so the analogy is relevant. — Mark Ransom, Jun 11 '10 at 22:15
Conversion betweeen VCSs doesn't mean losing history, for most VCSs. — Aram Hăvărneanu, Jun 11 '10 at 22:16
@Aram, I've never had to do it so I just assumed. Any good references? — Mark Ransom, Jun 11 '10 at 22:22
If you're contributing to an existing project, the answer is obvious - you must use what they're using. If that requires you to learn more than one system, just think of it as valuable experience. — Mark Ransom, Jun 11 '10 at 22:26
@Mark Ransom, EFraim's answer (one kind of software, the uniform interface) and my answer (one software with many plug-ins, the integrators) are good. Please, take a look at them. — Delirium tremens, Jun 16 '10 at 20:04

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 11 '10 at 22:13

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Choose the one that suits your needs and stick with it

answered Jun 11 '10 at 22:13

Hannoun Yassir

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If you work on different projects that use different VCSs you need to have them all. – Hannoun Yassir Jun 11 '10 at 22:45
EFraim's answer (one kind of software, the uniform interface) and my answer (one software with many plug-ins, the integrators) are good. Please, take a look at them. – Delirium tremens Jun 16 '10 at 20:05

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 11 '10 at 22:11

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Why use many? Pick one, and stick with it. Normally, the choice is between Mercurial, SVN, TFS and GIT today.

answered Jun 11 '10 at 22:11

Pavel Radzivilovsky

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You don't necessarily work on just *one* project. For example, I have my own repository which uses one SCM, and I contribute regularly to a project which in the near future will use a different one. Of course, I could migrate my own repo then ... – Joey Jun 11 '10 at 22:19

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited Feb 28 '18 at 12:10

I think one solution when having to deal with multiple working copies from different VCSs is to stick to uniform interface.

For instance there are TortoiseSVN, TortoiseHG and TortoiseGIT sharing much (I think) of UI.

OK, so the TortoiseHG's UI differs somewhat, but so is the working model and it is still an Explorer extension.

Of course this only makes sense if you are talking about different data sets with each of them, doing so with a single data set is really dangerous and often lossy operation.

UPDATE: It looks like according to your update it is really your case - you are using each to work with different repository.

EFraim, take a look at my answer! Uniform interface and integrators look like the best solutions to me. — Delirium tremens, Jun 16 '10 at 19:53

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 11 '10 at 22:23

Joel says to use Mercurial and provides a really nice write up for us subversion adherents to avoid going crazy during the the switch-over. Read his article and decide for yourself. I went from ignoring these other "weirdo" version control systems and sticking with subversion to thinking hmm maybe we should switch - this is actually starting to make sense to me now. Joel on dvcs

elcuco · Answer 5 · 2010-06-11T22:21:50.277

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Different projects demand different solutions.

If you are working with Linux - git is the solution. If you are working with Firefox - (not SVN) Mercurial is the solution. If you are working with drupal - CVS is the solution (they are migrating to GIT...). If you are working with KDE - SVN is the solution.

Anyway - there is no solution to this, this is part of the world we live in. It's like asking "why so much programming languages?"

(I myself, use git-svn to checkout SVN repositories... sometimes at least, GIT is the weapon of choice).

edited Jun 11 '10 at 22:21

answered Jun 11 '10 at 22:14

elcuco

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Firefox [uses Mercurial](https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Mozilla_Source_Code_%28Mercurial%29). – Matthew Flaschen Jun 11 '10 at 22:15
Do all developers have to use the same OS to contribute to the same project? I'm working with Linux, he's working with Windows, for example. – Delirium tremens Jun 11 '10 at 22:23
Delirium tremens@ depending on the project. For example, for Firefox, you don't. However on Linux, it's a little harder. I assume you can compile linux under FreeBSD and run it inside qemu for testing, but I am not sure you can cross compile the linux kernel from Windows. More buzzwords to read - "cross compiling" – elcuco Jun 12 '10 at 08:30

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Jun 11 '10 at 22:37

We use PVCS (Merant) at work for legacy projects that were using it, TFS for new Visual Studio work, and I use Mercurial for my personal projects.

The mental changes required to work with the different systems are just part of the territory, just like what I have to do when switching from C# to PowerBuilder to scripting language du task to VBA to C at work.

PVCS pisses me off, TFS is tolerable, and Mercurial is pretty unobtrusive as far as I'm concerned. They each server their particular purpose.

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 16 '10 at 19:47

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I searched for bzr svn in Synaptic and found a Subversion integrator for Bazaar Explorer, so I can download the latest svn revision files in a Subversion repository from Bazaar Explorer. There are Git and Mercurial integrators for Bazaar Explorer in Synaptic too. Search for bzr git, then bzr hg (it's Mercurial!). I'm wondering if the cvs importer works like a cvs integrator... I think it's missing!!! :-(

answered Jun 16 '10 at 19:47

Delirium tremens

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The cvs importer doesn't work like a cvs integrator. svn to bzr and git to bzr are easy, I never tried hg to bzr and cvs to bzr is being hard. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3206633/convert-from-cvs-to-bzr – Delirium tremens Jul 08 '10 at 18:11

What to do when there are so many version control systems?

7 Answers7