BitKeeper
Dev tools
version control
SHOW HN2016
384points
306comments
#37of 2,264 in 2016
Top 2%of 2016 by points
How HN took it
CuriousMostly questions and neutral comments
38 positive, 56 neutral or asking, 0 mixed, 16 critical, out of 110 comments about the project. Thread score +0.06.
Idea: 15 for, 10 againstPerformance: 7 for, 2 againstDesign: 7 for, 1 againstExecution: 1 for, 0 againstDocs: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Efficient handling of large binary files and nested repositories
From 2 comments
The biggest feature for me is the efficient handling of large binary files, because it means I could finally have a completely self-contained repository (clone and everything is…
Annatar on HNThe nested repository feature sounds amazing. Dealing with both git submodules and git subtrees has been a huge pain for me. I'm looking forward to trying this out over the…
paulasmuth on HN
Historical influence on Git and Bzr; SCCS weave design is clever
From 2 comments
Yeah this irony is not lost on me. But in both cases, the companies acted in self interest. Neither had the guts to walk away from their existing revenue stream. It's hard to say…
luckydude on HNRCS is patch based, the most recent version is kept in clear text and the previous version is stored as a reverse patch and so on back to the first version. So getting the most…
luckydude on HN
Merges and natural feel praised by former users
From 1 comment
Huh. Thanks for doing this. As a MySQL employee in the early days I used BitKeeper and fell in love with it and kept using it as long as I could. I mainly use Git these days, but…
jeremycole on HN
Objections
Too late; git has won the market
From 4 comments
This is very cool... but also, kind of a bit late. The market already adopted git and the momentum is there. Unless there is a trivial way to switch back and forth from git or…
rburhum on HNIt's too late. There is no reason to use non-git DVCS in 2016.
ezoe on HNGreat to see this finally happen... However, for 'us' Git remains a keeper.
gbraad on HNToo late?
talles on HN
Quick demo in docs is confusing
From 1 comment
``` $ bk clone bk://bkbits.net/bkdemo/bk_demo $ cd bkdemo # edit files using your favorite editor $ bk -Ux new $ bk commit -y"Comments" $ bk push ``` As a user whose first CVS…
paradite on HN
Cannot import from git or mercurial
From 1 comment
Can it import from git or SVN or mercurial? Looking at the bk import man page, it looks like it cannot import from any modern VCS. I see only RCS, SCCS, CVS, and MKS as options.…
drewg123 on HN
Copyright still held by BitMover; open source could be reversed
From 1 comment
BitMover still holds all the copyright, and have all the developers. They obviously wanted to keep BitKeeper proprietary, and are only doing it now when facing irrelevance in the…
teddyh on HN
Requests
Import from git and mercurial
From 2 comments
Can it import from git or SVN or mercurial? Looking at the bk import man page, it looks like it cannot import from any modern VCS. I see only RCS, SCCS, CVS, and MKS as options.…
drewg123 on HNThe nested repository feature sounds amazing. Dealing with both git submodules and git subtrees has been a huge pain for me. I'm looking forward to trying this out over the…
paulasmuth on HN
Comparison with git and hosted services
From 1 comment
I see this as "features" https://www.bitkeeper.org/why.html See large repo support, security and others. Is that geared towards comparing with Git/Github? Is there a more focused…
rdtsc on HN
Web interface or hosting service support
From 3 comments
Does this come with any sort of web interface?
benjarrell on HNGreat news! Better late than never! I hope they (or a client of theirs) create a BK backed service soon. I for one, think we need more than just github and altassian in the…
devnonymous on HNHow does BitKeeper scale to large projects? (Like, say, gigabytes of binaries.) This is a weak area of Git. --- From the "Why" page: BitKeeper’s Binary Asset Manager (BAM)…
kazinator on HN
Questions
How does it handle large binary files compared to git
From 2 comments
I'm wondering: how does it handle large binary files? Any better than git or hg without extensions?
sspiff on HNHow does BitKeeper scale to large projects? (Like, say, gigabytes of binaries.) This is a weak area of Git. --- From the "Why" page: BitKeeper’s Binary Asset Manager (BAM)…
kazinator on HN
Why use it over git or mercurial
From 1 comment
Why would I want to use this over git or mercurial?
adrianN on HN
Does it track renames
From 1 comment
Something I'm wondering and the man page doesn't clear, does it track files across renames or does it only track content like git?
PuercoPop on HN
Alternatives named
Git
From 2 comments
This is very cool... but also, kind of a bit late. The market already adopted git and the momentum is there. Unless there is a trivial way to switch back and forth from git or…
rburhum on HNIt's too late. There is no reason to use non-git DVCS in 2016.
ezoe on HN
Mercurial
From 2 comments
> Git was good enough and much faster, so people just got used to its weirdness. And boy is git weird! In Mercurial, I can mess with the file all day long after scheduling it for…
Annatar on HNThe biggest feature for me is the efficient handling of large binary files, because it means I could finally have a completely self-contained repository (clone and everything is…
Annatar on HN
Bazaar
From 1 comment
bzr got more than that from BK, it got one of my favorite things, per-file checkin comments. I liken those to regression tests, when you start out you don't really value them but…
luckydude on HN
CVS
From 1 comment
``` "The ability to seamlessly share only a subset of your source tree " ``` I've spent a good 10 mins trying to find anything specific in the documentation about this but come…
kingosticks on HN