Why Python chose Mercurial | Hacker News Reader

Why Python chose Mercurial

python.org

28 pointsgilaniali12 comments

The summary: "First, git's Windows support is the weakest out of the three DVCSs being considered which is unacceptable as Python needs to support development on any platform it runs on. Since Python runs on Windows and some people do develop on the platform it needs solid support. And while git's support is improving, as of this moment it is the weakest by a large enough margin to warrant considering it a problem.

Second, and just as important as the first issue, is that the Python core developers liked git the least out of the three DVCS options by a wide margin."

I'm using Mercurial for the same reason - Windows support without complex dependencies.

Some of the Windows information on Git from this article is outdated. I use TortoiseGit on Windows regularly. It handles all the common cases for me very well. For the uncommon cases, it comes packaged with Bash for Windows, so I can use Git easily from the command line as well.

My first ever DVCS was Mercurial, using it on both Windows and Mac. I recently (last two months or so) switched to git, to try it, and due to what seemed to me overwhelming use for the projects I saw across the web.

But, git felt weird. I don't know how to explain it other than that, but reading Python's decision to go with Mercurial just seemed to reinforce that to me. So I've switched back.

There is a lighting talk of some of the reasons at PyCon 2009. http://pycon.blip.tv/file/1947231/

The talk starts at 3:45.

I think they mainly chose it because it's what the community wanted. Git is very popular with Rubyists, and Pythonistas like to be a bit different than Rubyists. Instead, they chose hg, which is essentially git, with different names for things. Hg is a perfect fit for Python, as thats about how different Python is from Ruby or vice-versa ;)

Or could it just be that mercurial is written in python?

Well I did read the article, so I know that was part of it, I just think how the community feels mattered the most.

I don't use Mercurial, but didn't they replace the last of the Python code quite recently?

You are misinformed. Mercurial is still very much written in Python with a small part in C.

They do mention: "We are pragmatic enough to not choose a tool simply because it is written in Python, but we do see the usefulness in promoting tools that do use it when it is reasonable to do so as it is in this case."

Git was created for Linux kernel development. How in the world does Ruby have anything to do with anything?

I think the logic is this: Github is popular. Ruby is the most popular language on Github. Therefore Ruby and Git are connected.

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