Comment by ErrantX | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ErrantX | Hacker News Reader

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I use Mercurial and much much prefer it to Git (personal preference, I'll try not to evangalize)

In part he is dead on.

hg really can't handle large repositories; but to be honest if you're working with GB's of data then you're using the wrong tool :) period.

Point two is a "complaint" I agree with. The repository structure isn't particularly good - it "works" for the most part but sometimes you just want to kick it. And forget hacking around with it..

Silly things like "hg copy [file]" doesn't copy file history but does a remove/add & cp/rm are another ball ache.

Ultimately hg is a good tool; for lightweight, hackerish version control it is great. Beyond that? Yeh, use Git.

But isn't also Git just as good at the stuff you think hg is good at?

Yes.... though it is more complex (and in my experience a lot of that complexity is not needed by most). So hg is a nice portable alternative.

What part do you find complicated about git? The basic commands are: git clone, git add, git commit, git push ... most of these are handled by guis (tortoise, gitx, etc) so all you have to do then is click the right button

Well, exactly. For the vast majority of people those are the only four commands needed. So hg is a great alternative to git.

If you need something more complex or specialist then git is the clear winner.

I think the parent is trying to say that why use a tool that is "hackerish" if they both do the same thing with the same few commands. Then if you need to do something more complex you already have git.

Edit: iPad mistype.

I know this is glib but; it's more "raw" :)

But that's a personal preference. Git is just as good a choice.

hackerish != hackish.

I agree mostly. A large port tree shouldn't be checked into a source code management system,

For sure. But I do think it's just a sign of good design that Git is easily usable in ways that are unexpected and outside its original intended purpose.

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