Promoting the use of Mercurial; was: Re: gnome dvcs survey results

[Gabor Grothendieck]

On Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 5:42 PM, Arne Babenhauserheide <arne_bab at web.de> wrote:
> Am Montag 05 Januar 2009 20:46:08 schrieb Neal Becker:
>> http://blogs.gnome.org/newren/2009/01/03/gnome-dvcs-survey-results/
>
> This somehow bothers me, since it shows that some people use momentum as main
> argument for switching to git.

The size and activity of the community results in a network effect which is
a certainly key consideration for many.

Areas that might tip the balance in favor of hg are Windows support
with TortoiseHg
and potentially ease of installation and catering to simple usage.

Coordination of releases of Hg and TortoiseHg might help on the Windows front.

Installation is your first exposure and first impressions count.  A better
README pointing out all sources of info such as the page on how to install
without root privs.  Also self-discovery facilities for finding the
startup files.
Mine were in three different places on three different machines.

I suspect many more people will only ever employ simple usage with a linear
history than complex usages yet this is surprisingly difficult.  To move
around in the history you have to save uncommitted changes,
then move around, then move back and then unsave uncommitted changes
when you get back.  This needs to be streamlined.

For larger projects, including the forest extension in base Hg
(TortoiseHg already does that) might be nice.