Would more developers join if VirtueMart SVN was migrated to GIT?

[claesbas]

We (my web agency) are starting to use GitHub more and more and even me as a none developer like some of the features and issue trackers etc that a website lite GitHub has.

I really feel that Joomla CMS has gone thorugh much faster phase of development when it changed over to GIT and GitHub.

Would a move to Git / GitHub be benfitial in the long term for VirtueMart?

Max, what is you thoughts on that? Do you prefer SVN and are there any benefits?

[Studio 42]

Hi,
we have already talk about that with milbo and he don't wan't change.
I prefer github too, because sometime it's only some line of code or need to be tested and approved.ON using branch and fork, you can do this public, without need to wait that a member add it in official releases.
So community side, github is better and with github for windows, it's easier to use and you can directly edit your fork online, for little changes.
And i think most developper know git better then svn.

[welrachid]

Im not too familier with git and github.. but im trying to get it to know better:
Im still unsure on how the all fork/pull requests work and all that but i did manage to make contribution that are not accepted yet.
https://github.com/welrachid/

With that said i understand that svn does not allow this public contribution. Is that correct? Therefore it must go through other channels, for example forum.virtuemart.net

the real question is however whether or not VM development would go faster. The answer to that in my opinion is solely a regard of whether there is enough people that understands it in it full. For me as a new (approx 1 year) VM user/developer it is hard to see more than a handful of people being able to answer most questions. people like studie42, gjc web design, milbo, PRO and jenkinhill
Its "this" number that needs to increase before i find it relevant to stay on svn or go to git.

[claesbas]

What I feel is that this forum is not a good solution as an "issue tracker" ... Thats what I like about GitHub the most, and issue is started, fixed and closed. Or resovled through some other thing. And there is a good track record of all the issues. I get a feeling Joomla really has progressed with lots of fixes since this begun with that community.

Maybe keeping SVN but get a real "bugtracker" thing ... bugtracker.virtuemart.net or whatever.

Still GitHub does it all.

But again, Im not a developer and I should not have a dog in this fight as I don't know the ins and outs of really developing with GIT/GitHub. However it seems quite a lot of successful project have moved to GitHub and that is why Im bringing this up.

[lindapowers]

http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=131277.0

And yes, more developers will join.

[Studio 42]

Advantage of Github, is that you have not to be developer. Only to register.
And you can check open issues. Some have already partial fix,or have only the idea, or only bug reports, so Github can be used in any level and you can quick propose any fix.
Of course for permanent team developper, it's easier to stay with SVN.
But seens Joomla is in github for eg. It's easier to send some fix and ideas(rejected or not), you don't need anymore to find the right person in forum or write in tracker. And all is public and easy to find, so i think more people try the last releases and send fixes.

[claesbas]

http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=131277.0

And yes, more developers will join.

Oh, missed this one (sorry for doing another thread). It has been discussed. I suppose nothing has changed. Still a bugtracker would be a good thing. Im +1 for GitHub :-)

[maxispin]

I am not sure if the place is right (http://docs.virtuemart.net/tutorials/development/100-svn-download.html), but trying to use SmartSvn for downloading the trunk+braches, I do get all the time "The server sent a truncated HTTP response body". It downloads a while then stops for (server side?) error.

But to the question asked, The easier the system, the more it gets peoples interest. Vote for GitHub

[Milbo]

Did you read?
http://dev.virtuemart.net/projects/virtuemart/wiki/Setting_up_a_Development_Environment

oha and yes, you found some old page for vm1.1, yeh would be nice to get help there.

[StefanSTS]

A bug tracker needs man power to maintain it, even I wanted a tracker a year ago or so, even got the admin access to the one that is already there, but unused.

And then I found out, it is not really needed, it only bloats the work, because someone would have to maintain that beast. The main thing about bug trackers is, people just file bugs, but the bugs are already filed a few times before, and then another one, and in the end, somebody has to clean up. Same like with this thread, only here, nobody has to clean up, you can read it or leave it. I remember the GIT discussion about four times in the last two years. Always time invested, because it wasn't searched for the bug/thread/topic, or it wasn't found.

Anyone who wants to report bugs, can do that here, anyone who has a fix, can post a fix for it, you just need to setup your SVN and send a patch. Even I could do that. It is just a few clicks away.

And if you are doing good work and are committed and you don't break two things with your patch when you fix one, Max might even decide to give you the right to commit something yourself. There are a few people now, who can commit. With this restricted procedure the headaches and introduced bugs are much less, you can definitely see that if you check the code quality.

A simple search through the forum always gives me the answers I need. So my bugtracker is the forum.

Stefan

[maxispin]

Did you read?
http://dev.virtuemart.net/projects/virtuemart/wiki/Setting_up_a_Development_Environment

oha and yes, you found some old page for vm1.1, yeh would be nice to get help there.

Thanks Milbo. I didn't.

[balai]

A bug tracker needs man power to maintain it, even I wanted a tracker a year ago or so, even got the admin access to the one that is already there, but unused.

Of course it needs man power but it's the most valuable tool of a project.

A forum is not designed to be a bug trucker. Support and bug tracking is not the same thing and is not addressed to the same people of a project.

Keeping it close can possibly produce more consistent code but slower development. This could be addressed with involvement of people to code reviewing and testing

[claesbas]

Im starting to understand the issues here and I actually like Max firm and diligent approach on these subjects. Keep up the good work!

Only thing I saw here that hopefully this thread could/lead to is that the documentation to get access to the SVN could be a little easier to find and also it would probalby be good to remove that old 1 seerires SVN completley.

[Studio 42]

The problem is that more developper know how to add some changes in github that in SVN and for non developer, you need any knowledge.
And now in github you can directly upload files .
SO you can simply do a fork> upload your file or edit in github the file.
No need to do a patch or anything, on compare releases you can check what is the changes.
And in github you have always managers for the project, so project leader can  close issue, reject pull requests, add new branch  ...
So only this managers can update main branch. SVN have absolute not any advantages at all!
Does someone give me a good reason why SVN is better ?
I don't find any today

Some good example, is that i fixed some bugs in github, I had never installed SVN to do this.
In github i use mostly direct file edit and test the zip file. No need to install anything for small fixes

[Milbo]

and you can still create patches for svn using your git