Sunday 5 July 2009

Python migration to Hg

When it was mentioned that Python would be migrating to distributed version control, I couldn't help but sigh. There was no benefit for me personally that I could see, and if Python went, it was likely Stackless would have to also. Half of the work involved in maintaining Stackless Python is merging in the code from the Python branches.

But having moved back to New Zealand, where the internet connectivity is not as good as it is overseas and is also charged per gigabyte, the idea of using a distributed version control system has immediate benefits. Now, I can't wait for the switch to go ahead.

Reading posts to the python-dev mailing list querying whether the migration could be accelerated, reminded me of a conversation I had with Martin v. Löwis at PyCon. Martin said not to worry, if the migration went ahead, Stackless would be migrated too. So, seeing the activity on this subject, made me wonder if I should subscribe to the mailing list and try and throw in a reminder for Stackless to be migrated as well.

I was pleasantly surprised to see the following in the progress report by Dirkjan Ochtman:

Richard Tew has indicated that he'd like the Stackless repository to also be converted.
Thanks Dirkjan, thanks Martin!