SNESCM

Scandinavian Network of Excellence
in
Software Configuration Management

Time: Wednesday, September 20th, 2017, 15:30-16:30.

Place: Praqma's new Malmö-facilities in Kalendegatan 10, Malmö.

Title: What should a version control do - and what should it not be able to do?

Host: Christian Pendleton, Praqma

In this CM Coffee Meeting we want to explore more precisely what requirements we - as configuration managers - have to the perfect version control tool. The initial idea for the CMCM was triggered by a blog post on version control from Poul-Henning Kamp (PHK).

The purpose of the CMCM is not to discuss git - or any other specific tool - but to get deeper into what absolute requirements must be satisfied by a version control tool for us to rely on it:

• What is the purpose of a version control tool?
• What tasks does it have to perform?
• What principles must it respect?

Since PHK calls git a very good collaboration tool (groupware) - and a good one - we will probably also have to address what requirements people could have to a collaboration/groupware tool - and in which way they differ from or might be in contrast with those for a version control tool.

Once we have the requirements each person is free to check his/her favourite version control tool against them - and draw his/her own conclusions as to whether it really is a version control tool or "just" a collaboration tool.

PS. Well, since PHK started mentioning git, we can probably not completely avoid talking about git ;-)