[R] Which version control system to learn for managing Rprojects?

[Whit Armstrong]

http://hudson-ci.org


On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 8:49 AM,  <david.jessop at ubs.com> wrote:
> Gabor
>
> As someone trying to the rest of my team using Subversion (which I have used for a while, but more as a backup / record of changes), have you a neat / automated way of building a package from a subversion repository?
>
> Thanks
>
> David Jessop
> --------------------------
> David Jessop
> Global Head of Quantitative Research
> UBS Investment Research
>
> +44 20 7567 9882
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org <r-help-bounces at r-project.org>
> To: Tal Galili <tal.galili at gmail.com>
> Cc: r-help at r-project.org <r-help at r-project.org>
> Sent: Tue Oct 26 23:55:40 2010
> Subject: Re: [R] Which version control system to learn for managing Rprojects?
>
> On Tue, Oct 26, 2010 at 12:16 PM, Tal Galili <tal.galili at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hello all,
>>
>> I wish to learn a version control system for managing my R (data analysis)
>> projects.
>>
>> I know of SVN and github, and wonder if there is any reason for which I
>> should prefer the one over the other (or any other platform). An example for
>> a reason could be if it will make it easier for me to later work with
>> R-forge or CRAN or any other platform for R code distribution.
>>
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Tal
>
> There are several considerations:
>
> 1. What is everyone else using?  The network effect is important since
> you want people to be able to access your repository and you want to
> leverage your knowledge of the version control system for other
> projects' repositories.  To that extent Subversion is the clear choice
> since its used on R-Forge, by R itself and on Google code (Google code
> also supports Mercurial).
>
> 2. Features.  Git, Mercurial, Bazaar and a few others are distributed
> version control systems which represent the next generation after
> centralized ones like Subversion.  Git claims to be the most popular
> and is the fastest of the three distributed systems being written in C
> (the others in Python),  Git is an ugly combination of C, shell
> scripts and other languages.   The underlying basic design is
> attractive despite a somewhat messy implementation.  At the time I
> evaluated them Mercurial was the only one with decent cross platform
> support and is the one used by Google but the situation relative to
> cross platform support could have changed since then, and Bazaar has
> the advantage of being pre-installed on many systems.
>
> 3. Repositories.  The repository you use (R-Forge, Google code,
> Github) is a key associated decision.  R-Forge uses Subversion and has
> the advantage that it does automatic builds but it has an annoying
> delay of about 20 minutes every time you change your home page, etc.
> before it appears.  Google code supports Subversion and Mercurial.
> Google code is easier to use and, in particular, it uses http rather
> than R-Forge's ssh.  http is more convenient, particularly for Windows
> users.  Google code also has no delay and it also has integrated issue
> tracking, a wiki and a download area for your project.  It is possible
> to host your project on Google code but still have R-Forge front-end
> it and at least one R developer has posted that he does precisely
> that.  Google code is more restrictive regarding the licenses that it
> accepts although it does accept most of the popular free ones such as
> GPL, Apache, etc. On the plus side, Google code does have specific
> support for separate code and documentation licenses which may be an
> advantage.  R-Forge does not restrict the license and Github allows
> non-free projects but you have to pay for using it in that case.
>
> 4. Editor/IDE.  You don't really need integration of your editor and
> version control system yet is may be convenient if its available.
> Subversion is integrated with Microsoft Common Source Code Control
> Interface (MSSCCI) so any editor or IDE that supports that standard
> integrates with Subversion.  There are subversion plugins for vim,
> Emacs, Eclipse and likely many other editors and IDEs.  There may be
> plugins for some of the other version control systems too.
>
> 5. Windows Explorer.  There are Windows explorer extensions for
> Subversion, Mercurial, Git and Bazaar.  The Subversion and Mercurial
> "Tortoise" extensions are reasonably mature.  I believe the Git and
> Bazaar Tortoise extensions are newer.
>
> 6. Client vs. Server and Installation.  With subversion you typically
> use a subversion repository on a remote system to host your software
> and you only install client software.  You can use the command line or
> a number of other alternative command line or GUI clients.  With the
> distributed ones every installation is both a client and a repository
> (and potentially a server).  Its harder to install a subversion
> repository but that does not really matter since normally you only
> install the client.  The distributed systems are generally easy to
> install although if you need to install them from source on a
> non-supported or old system Mercurial was the easiest to get going
> based on my experience in having to do exactly that.  Bazaar is often
> pre-installed on some distributions in which case there is zero
> installation.
>
> Although I have focused on the most popular there are other version
> control systems too.  darcs is a powerful distributed system but may
> not be able to handle as large projects as the ones discussed here.
> fossil was developed by the SQLite developer and features particularly
> streamlined installation.  Both these have their enthusiastic
> adherents.
>
> I personally mostly use Subversion, the TortoiseSVN client and when I
> want a distributed system I use Mercurial, usually from the command
> line or to a lesser extent via TortoiseHG.  I have contributed an
> extension to the Mercurial project (not related to R) which might bias
> me slightly toward it so caveat emptor.
>
> --
> Statistics & Software Consulting
> GKX Group, GKX Associates Inc.
> tel: 1-877-GKX-GROUP
> email: ggrothendieck at gmail.com
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>
>
> Issued by UBS AG or affiliates to professional investors for
> information only and its accuracy/completeness is not guaranteed.
> All opinions may change without notice and may differ to
> opinions/recommendations expressed by other business areas of UBS.
> UBS may maintain long/short positions and trade in instruments
> referred to. Unless stated otherwise, this is not a personal
> recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy/sell and any
> prices/quotations are indicative only. UBS may provide investment
> banking and other services to, and/or its employees may be directors
> of, companies referred to. To the extent permitted by law, UBS does
> not accept any liability arising from the use of this communication.
>
>  \251 UBS 2010.  All rights reserved. Intended for recipient only and
> not for further distribution without the consent of UBS.
>
> UBS Limited is a company registered in England & Wales under company
> number 2035362, whose registered office is at 1 Finsbury Avenue,
> London, EC2M 2PP, United Kingdom.
>
> UBS AG (London Branch) is registered as a branch of a foreign company
> under number BR004507, whose registered office is at
> 1 Finsbury Avenue, London, EC2M 2PP, United Kingdom.
>
> UBS Clearing and Execution Services Limited is a company registered
> in England & Wales under company number 03123037, whose registered
> office is at 1 Finsbury Avenue, London, EC2M 2PP, United Kingdom.
>
> UBS reserves the right to retain all messages. Messages are protected
> and accessed only in legally justified cases.
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>
>