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Firefox Development Is Moving From Mercurial To Git

https://lemmy.ndlug.org/post/357149

Firefox Development Is Moving From Mercurial To Git - NDLUG

> For a long time Firefox Desktop development has supported both Mercurial and Git users. This dual SCM requirement places a significant burden on teams which are already stretched thin in parts. We have made the decision to move Firefox development to Git. > - We will continue to use Bugzilla, moz-phab, Phabricator, and Lando > - Although we’ll be hosting the repository on GitHub, our contribution workflow will remain unchanged and we will not be accepting Pull Requests at this time > - We’re still working through the planning stages, but we’re expecting at least six months before the migration begins

Nov 6, 2023 at 1:51pmWeb
Show threadtempestNov 6, 2023
I always preferred mercurial as a user but all the tooling and everything else built in the last decade has been for git so it makes sense.
Show threadtaladarNov 6, 2023
Mercurial had a nice UI on messy internals. Git had an initially not quite that nice UI on solid internals. It is obvious why Git won in the end.
Show threadtempestNov 7, 2023

Gits UI is still terrible.

The reason it is popular is because it is the VCS of the Linux kernel and github became the defacto open source social media site.

Show threadtaladarNov 7, 2023

You have got that backwards. Github became popular because git was popular. Nobody forced people to use it and which VCS the Linux kernel uses barely matters to anyone not working on it.

The truth is that a “nice” UI that doesn’t allow you to know what actually happens because the internals are hard to understand is hard to trust with your code history that you still want to access 20 years later. Git is popular for the same reason Markdown, Textile,… are popular among programmers over WYSIWIG style rich text programs like Word.

Show threadcypher_greyhatNov 6, 2023
👍👍👍
Show threadQuazarOmegaNov 6, 2023
Wierd that they’d switch to GitHub though, ideologically at least, I would think they’d host their own servers and, at most, have a mirror on GitHub
Show threadangrymouseNov 6, 2023
Yup, I noticed that too. But I got that you can’t fight all the wars.
Show threadTWeaKNov 6, 2023
I think the trouble is when users start committing to git, they can’t really be mirrors because each one needs to combine the inputs from both.
Show threadstolid_agnosticNov 6, 2023
Downvotes without explanation as to why they think that doesn’t make sense.
Show threadahriboyNov 6, 2023
Mozilla should have their own Forgejo instance instead
Show threadfloridamanNov 7, 2023
I love forgejo for Homelabbing purposes but Mozilla Foundation has the infrastructure to deploy something like GitLab, which has a much larger feature set compared to forgejo with more targeted toward the development work on large projects. But, Mozilla said the development flow would remain mostly the same as it is now, so most of the features in GitLab, Forgejo, or GitHub will remain unused.
Show threadlemmyvoreNov 6, 2023
That’s basically what the GitHub repo will be, a mirror from which people can download the latest code. Mozilla dev flow does not use GitHub infrastructure and they don’t plan to.
Show threadTWeaKNov 6, 2023
So it’s not really moving from one to the other, it’s already on both and they’re closing the less popular one.
Show threadlemmyvoreNov 6, 2023

No. The primary source control is on Mercurial, with a Git interface. But since all patches must go through moz-phab (Phabricator) anyway the Git interface is basically read-only – you can use it to pull the code and you can use Git locally for your development, but you can’t use Git to push back into the main repo.

Now the reference repository will switch from their own Mercurial infrastructure to a Github (Git) repository, but the flow will remain the same (Phabricator rather than GitHub pull requests). Nothing will change for devs who were using Git. Devs who were using Mercurial will have to switch to Git.

Show threadkameecodingNov 6, 2023
why didn’t they go to Gitlab though? now they will be hosted by microsoft
Show threadmerthyr1831Nov 7, 2023
the github repo is a mirror to their internal source hosting. github is just the most accessible to a wide audience
Show threadPulpogardenNov 6, 2023
Codeberg anyone?
Show threadPossibly linuxNov 6, 2023
They should move to forgeo
Show threadMajorHavocNov 6, 2023

According to the 2022 Stack Overflow Developer Survey, Mercurial is the 4th most popular response, beaten one by Git, Subversion, and “I don’t use version control”.

Mercurial was only 1/4 as popular as “I don’t use version control.”

Show threadlemmyvoreNov 7, 2023
The fact that people still use Subversion is the real crime.
Show threadmerthyr1831Nov 7, 2023
Unreal engine basically requires it for decent version control iirc. i had a nightmare trying to get git to work on my university project a few years back
Show threadRockHornetNov 7, 2023
It’s Perforce I think, not svn.
Show threadGallardo994Nov 7, 2023

I don’t use version control

Well that’s a bummer. I guess some people love to live on the edge.

Show threadFooBarringtonNov 7, 2023
My version control strategy is the same as my birth control one: if things start to go bad, pull the plug