Future of Mercurial?

[Somchai Smythe]

Well, I'll tell you my perspective, but I admit my use case is
probably not common and my opinions are probably controversial.  Maybe
it'll spark a response that states the plan going forward, and we'd
all like know if there is such a plan, and if it exists what it is and
what the timeframe is.

Mercurial doesn't really work with python3, and python2 is pretty much
end-of-life.  Switching to git is the only viable option unless the
mercurial people fix this, and they seem to be unable or unwilling to
embrace python3.  This is why I switched all my projects to git, even
though I much prefer mercurial.  I need something that works
cross-platform and will still be working in the years to come, and
anything which requires python2 is doomed.  I even had to throw out
all my teaching materials and rewrite them for git (that was a
non-trivial exerciese).  Trying to teach git to students new to Linux,
well, it's turned out to be about 10 times harder than teaching
mercurial to them.  But I don't want to teach dead-end technology
since it won't be useful to them after graduation.

I'm depressed by the fact that even after all this time the mercurial
maintainers didn't either learn python3 or rewrite it in straight C,
but they've hinted they'll go with rust.  My non-teaching systems
where I once used mercurial are all offline systems and I use
thumbdrives to move data on and off of them. The rust toolchain
requires a live internet connection to even build, so I cannot work
with that toolchain.  How can people even trust something that makes
it practically impossible to see the source they are actually building
with without using tcpdump/wireshark to capture the streams?  The
proponents claim rust is more secure, but who can actually be sure
since it downloads code you cannot reivew during the build?  It could
put _anything_ in there and you'd never know it until too late.  And
yeah, I had to dump firefox for the same reason.  If they had chosen
'go', C or C++, they don't have these rust issues and I'd be willing
to try it.

Meanwhile, git builds fine without an internet connection, it handles
the linux kernel fine which certainly builds my confidence it can
handle anything I'll ever need to do with it, even microsoft has
switched to git, and it sure seems to me it'll be the last vcs
standing when the dust settles.  The fact that git is also the most
difficult and tedious to use is unfortunate, but a price most seem
willing to pay to get one ubiquitous vcs that builds and runs
anywhere, builds easily, and is designed for high performance.

If, and this is rather unlikely, the mercurial team ditched rust and
embraced python3, which also runs everywhere I care about, I might
consider switching back, but switching vcs keeping history, tags, etc.
is so much trouble I suspect most large projects wouldn't even
consider it once they've completed their switch to git.

If mercurial wants to remain alive, the maintainers need to deliver a
drop-in replacement, even if it is a rust-based thing that wouldn't
work for me, that doesn't use the doomed python2, and it'll need to be
backwards compatible with the older hg repos.  It could still happen,
but is it wise to rely on that?  Only you can evaluate the risk and
make that decision.

Since the linux distribution I use doesn't even have python2 any more,
the decision has already been made for me.


On 3/10/19, Harley Leyton <voldermort at hotmail.com> wrote:
> -- The following is written in good faith for frank, honest discussion --
>
> I began using hg many years ago, back when git had a horrible UI and didn't
> work on Windows. Since then, git has become fully supported on Windows and
> the UI has much improved. hg still has the edge for user-friendliness and
> cross-platform support, but git has almost 100% of the mindshare and market.
>
> I've been stubbornly sticking with hg for hobby projects, but I almost never
> encounter anything other than git in the open source and commercial worlds.
> (I'm aware that hg is used in both, but this is a rare exception.) hg seems
> to be going very much in the direction of bzr, although we're clearly not
> there yet.
>
> I'm interested in more positive - but realistic - perspectives.
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