[darcs-users] Mac OS X installation barriers /was Re: ANNOUNCE: darcs 2.5.2

Stephen J. Turnbull stephen at xemacs.org
Tue Sep 6 17:28:19 UTC 2011


Ash Moran writes:

 > My feeling is that [the installation obstacle course on Mac] is a
 > barrier to darcs adoption, at least among people I know.

Sure.  I use all the common free VCSes for something or other, but I
don't bother to keep Darcs up-to-date on the Mac for precisely this
reason.  If that means that I can't keep some code up-to-date on Mac
via Darcs because the repo wants a more recent Darcs than is provided
by MacPorts, I'll mirror to git on a GNU/Linux system, and use that to
keep my Macs up to date.  (Hasn't happened yet.)

[I still "like" Darcs, and recommend it reasonably often to fellow
LUGgers, but not to Mac users, and it doesn't fit the way I work.  Git
does.  Too much beach volleyball and drugs in grad school, I guess. :-)
Anyway, I don't use Darcs for own projects at this time, so little
incentive to stay on the bleeding edge.]

 > What this means is that when I tell someone I use darcs, and they
 > ask what it is and why (and why I don't "just use git"), I can't
 > say "it's cool because it does X, Y and Z really well, just give it
 > a go!". Because I know most will just give up before they get over
 > the installation barrier*.

Yup.  I'm shocked ("shocked, SHOCKED, I tell you") at the degree to
which people's willingness to do anything more than type "$PMS
install" has decayed in recent decades.  Kids today! :-)




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