Subject: Re: Mozilla, git and Windows

From: Sam Vilain <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2006 13:30:08 +1300

Jon Smirl wrote:
> In the other thread we are discussing the conversion of Mozilla CVS to
> git format. This is something that has to be done but it is not the
> only issue. Without a native Windows port they won't even consider
> using git. There is also the risk that the features needed by Mozilla
> will be completed after they choose to use a different SCM.
>
> Even if we implement all of the needed features git still needs to win
> the competition against the other possible choices. The last I heard
> the leading candiate is SVN/SVK.

Jon,

When I met clkao in August to discuss the possibility of using git as a
depot for SVK, he seemed very open to the idea, and we worked on an
initial plan for this.  This should eventually allow svk to be used as a
porcelain, which might make it more palatable to the Windows crowd.

However that doesn't solve the Windows porting issue - it would still
need to access the repository.

I've been working on and off on an abstraction to git, in Moose (perl 6
objects on perl 5) - what's working so far is making core objects, and
producing correct checksums.

You can see this early implementation at
http://utsl.gen.nz/gitweb/?p=VCS-Git

What I've found is that I need a good abstraction of UNIX pipelines that
is as portable as Perl, so that I can prototype the code basing it on
setting up command pipelines on UNIX, and have it gracefully degrade to
either using temporary files on Windows, or threading if portions are
re-implemented using Perl (or a ported libgit).  I am currently working
on this and hope to have a release by the end of the week, though I will
not have tested the Windows portability by then.

I would love it if anyone interested in the project would like to help
me complete the OO-based API, provide tests, documentation, or any kind
of feedback really.