Re: [Monotone-devel] Re: results of mercurial user survey

[Nathaniel Smith]

On Thu, Apr 27, 2006 at 09:58:29PM -0400, address@hidden wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 27, 2006 at 04:26:12PM -0700, Nathaniel Smith wrote:
> > 
> > As it happens, the actual checking proper seems to be almost invisible
> > in profiles of 0.26's pulls.  There's still some reason to think that
> > this is all doable.  So, that's why I think we should keep trying the
> > "improve speed while refusing to give up safety" strategy for now...
> 
> If you give up on safety with an archiving tool, what's the point of 
> having one?

Actually, the answer to this is, "to get work done".  It took me a
while to figure this out :-).  But in fact, in real life, a lot of
people use a VCS more for day-to-day coordination and distribution,
and don't care about history much at all.  I've certainly been shocked
by how cavalier some people are with just tossing out history...

I have some background, even before monotone, in looking at _real_
archival problems -- e.g., scientific data -- where it really is
a kind of sacred trust to never lose anything.  So that biases me a
bit :-).  And, honestly, this is one of those places where we may know
a better than the users.  Or at least, I can definitely imagine being
in the throes of getting something done, and throwing out history if
it lets me get there a little quicker... but then regretting that
much, much later, when the particular task is long gone but so is the
history.

So I'm not saying we _shouldn't_ keep an archival frame of mind.
Just, we should remember that many users _don't_ have such a frame of
mind -- and we need to be a good tool for them too.  If nothing else,
that's the only way their data will be safe!  Imagine if some clever
IT guy had set up the staff at the library of Alexandria to use
monotone... ;-).

(What, so we have to simultaneously optimize for two incompatible and
contradictory use cases?  Welcome to VCS design...)

-- Nathaniel

-- 
"But in Middle-earth, the distinct accusative case disappeared from
the speech of the Noldor (such things happen when you are busy
fighting Orcs, Balrogs, and Dragons)."