Slashdot Mirror
Tridge Releases BitKeeper-Compatible Tool
Peter Willis writes "Looking at Freshmeat today (a part of OSTG) it seems Andrew Tridgell has released the BitKeeper-compatible source code management client mentioned on slashdot recently, called SourcePuller. As part of the downloads available for the project you can also get dump files which detail how to pull data from BK trees without the use of libsp. From the README: 'SourcePuller is not intended to be a full replacement for BitKeeper. Instead, you should use SourcePuller as an interoperability tool for situations where you cannot use bk itself. SourcePuller is missing a large amount of core functionality from BitKeeper, and thus is not suitable as a full replacement.'" Article available about the release on The Register.
Perhaps because Tridge never set out to create a replacement for BK - merely a tool that would interoperate with it and enable you to get source out of a BK repository without actually running the BK client.
were you expecting to see a sig here? perhaps you'd rather see the inside of an ambulance!
Nice quote, but the thing is, that's all we CAN do here. Slashdot is not a place to do software development; it isn't set up for that. It's a place for discussion. So basically, discuss, praise the author, try & review the software, but if you want to "help with code", you're in the wrong place.
Flywheels has a history of linking articles at his site, PressEsc to un-related stories and comments, in order to boost his PageRank.
He has even linked to Google to redirect to his page so that he escapes detection from mods.
Feel free to check his history.
Sometimes I am anti-comment. When I get some example code that has 10+ lines of comments per line of actual code, I usually delete most of the comments so I can see what the heck the code is actually doing. There is such a thing as too much verbosity, or at the very least, some documentation shouldn't be in the middle of the function.
On a serious note, it's good that this apparently oh so evil piece of software is finally out in the open, so that the people can see that all the fuss was about a tool that allows you to get your data that is managed by a propietary tool.
In a way it's good to have issues like this bubble up to give people a chance to really think about the fundamental principles involved in open source development.
For instance, it would be hypocritical to applaud Tridge for his work on reverse-engineering SMB to create Samba and to simultaneously criticize him for doing the exact same thing with BK.
Likewise, to criticize MS for using secrecy to make money with its products, while decrying the effect Tridge's reverse engineering has on the income of the Larry trying to feed his family by selling BK.
The principles have to hold independent of the emotional circumstances and the players of the game.
FOSS is all about the natural migration of more and more software technology into commodities. And that will inevitably be a difficult pill to swallow for anyone who has created new software that makes money for them. At some point, if the software is really useful, other competent programmers will look to produce a work-alike functionality. And it will be for the greater good of humanity as a whole because they will be able to use better tools for less money. Even as it erodes the financial benefits that accrue to one or to a few from having thought and done it first.
A happy ending would be Tridge's sofware encouraging more people to buy the BK core to interoperate with Sourcepuller. But, in the longer run, I expect a free core will eventually be developed and it will displace the proprietary one.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
And what the hell was Linus talking about? He can understand not wanting someone "riding on their coattails, solve the problem yourself" - what problem? A tool for pulling snapshots? This is not the vast mysteries of SCM being solved, this is a utility.