
Can we standardize version control?  - Anon84
http://blog.slickedit.com/?p=247
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makecheck
Plug and play between VC tools isn't desirable to me, for a few reasons.

One, while transition is a pain, it doesn't happen much. Over 10 years on two
different projects, I've only ever switched their VC tools once. I can
guarantee that even "standard" interfaces would morph over 10 years.

Two, and more important, "equivalence" could be detrimental. For instance, CVS
has an explicit tag command that hits every file, but Subversion treats this
as a special case of a server-side copy. These are not the same. It's the
evolution of a concept, and if Subversion had been expected to support CVS'
10-year-old "standard" for tagging, it would be hindered by it.

Finally, the article seems most concerned with preserving file history. This
is a much smaller problem than standardization, and involves just two tools.
It also isn't _necessarily_ a problem. For instance, in one case I just
decided I didn't care about moving history, knowing that I could always bring
up the old tool if I wanted to see something (and to this day, I haven't had
to use the old tool).

