Microsoft Office migration from Source Depot to Git • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft Office migration from Source Depot to Git

#181

Post by malkia » Thu, Jun 12, 2025, 3:10 PM UTC

pjc50 wrote: post #124

codeulike wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We used it. We knew no better. It was different then, you might not hear about alternatives unless you went looking for them. Source Safe was integrated with Visual Studio so was an obvious choice for small teams. Get this; if you wanted to change a file you had to check it out. It was then locked and no-one else could change it. Files were literally read only on your machine unless you checked them out. The 'one at…

The lock approach is still used in IC design for some of the Cadence/Synopsis data files which are unmergable binaries. Not precisely sure of the details but I've heard it from other parts of the org.

Similar in video game shops - lots of binary files, or even huge (non-editable by human) text ones.

Re: Microsoft Office migration from Source Depot to Git

#182

Post by malkia » Thu, Jun 12, 2025, 3:11 PM UTC

nyarlathotep_ wrote: post #148

dgellow wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perforce is used in game dev, animation, etc. git is pretty poor at dealing with lots of really large assets

I've heard this about game dev before. My (probably only somewhat correct) understanding is it's more than just source code--are they checking in assets/textures etc? Is perforce more appropriate for this than, say, git lfs?

And often binaries: .exe, .dll, even .pdb files.

Re: Microsoft Office migration from Source Depot to Git

#183

Post by mosdl » Thu, Jun 12, 2025, 3:12 PM UTC

throwaway889900 wrote: post #176

Thank goodness I don't have to use IBM's Rational Team Concert anymore. Even just thinking about it makes me shudder.

It was a great tool for losing changes!

Re: Microsoft Office migration from Source Depot to Git

#184

Post by tough » Thu, Jun 12, 2025, 3:18 PM UTC

Marsymars wrote: post #175

kccqzy wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I cannot believe that new hires would be upset by the choice of version control software. They joined a new company after so many hoops and it's on them for having an open mind towards processes and tools in the new company.

I feel like I’ve got an open mind towards processes and tools; the problem with a company using anything other than Git at this point is that unless they have a good explanation for it, it’s not going to be an indicator that the company compared the relative merits of VCS systems and chose something other than Git - it’s going to be an indicator that the company doesn’t have the bandwidth or political will to moderni…

maybe they're on bazel?

Re: Microsoft Office migration from Source Depot to Git

#185

Post by tough » Thu, Jun 12, 2025, 3:19 PM UTC

connicpu wrote: post #177

evilduck wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Discord I get, at least from a community or network effect, but Bitbucket? I can’t figure out why anyone but a CTO looking to save a buck would prefer Bitbucket.

We use BitBucket where I work. Due to certain export regulations it's simpler for us to keep as many services as possible on-prem if they're going to contain any of our intellectual property, so BitBucket Server it is. There are other options of course, but all of the cloud solutions were off the table.

sorry for the tangent, how you deal with AI?

Re: Microsoft Office migration from Source Depot to Git

#186

Post by KingLancelot » Thu, Jun 12, 2025, 3:24 PM UTC

rwmj wrote: post #134

qiine wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why is this still the case ?

I've been checking in large (10s to 100s MBs) tarballs into one git repo that I use for managing a website archive for a few years, and it can be made to work but it's very painful. I think there are three main issues: 1. Since it's a distributed VCS, everyone must have a whole copy of the entire repo. But that means anyone cloning the repo or pulling significant commits is going to end up downloading vast amounts of…

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Re: Microsoft Office migration from Source Depot to Git

#187

Post by KingLancelot » Thu, Jun 12, 2025, 3:29 PM UTC

dazzawazza wrote: post #97

bob1029 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perforce is really nice if you need to source control 16k textures next to code without thinking too much about it. Git LFS absolutely works but it's more complicated and has less support in industry tooling. Perforce also makes it easier to purge (obliterate) old revisions of files without breaking history for everyone. This can be invaluable if your p4 server starts to run out of disk space. The ability to lock fil…

I agree with everything you say except git-lfs works. For modern game dev (where a full checkout is around 1TB of data) git-lfs is too slow, too error prone and too wasteful of disk space. Perforce is a complete PITA to work with, too expensive and is outdated/flawed for modern dev BUT for binary files it's really the only game in town (closely followed by svn but people have forgotten how good svn was and only remem…

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Re: Microsoft Office migration from Source Depot to Git

#188

Post by bongodongobob » Thu, Jun 12, 2025, 3:33 PM UTC

Tostino wrote: post #165

axus wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If companies don't cater to the whims of the youth, they'd have to hire... old people

But those cost so much more!

But they are Analysts and know corporate speak and are really good at filling their schedules with meetings! They must be so busy doing very meaningful work!

Re: Microsoft Office migration from Source Depot to Git

#189

Post by wvenable » Thu, Jun 12, 2025, 3:38 PM UTC

tamlin wrote: post #139

0points wrote: post #130

Having used vss in the 90s myself, it surprised me it wasn't even mentioned. VSS (Visual SourceSafe) being Microsoft's own source versioning protocol, unlike Source Depot which was licensed from Perforce.

Yes, I used VSS as a solo developer in the 90s. It was a revelation at the time. I met other VCS systems at grad school (RCS, CVS). I started a job at MSFT in 2004 and I recall someone explaining that VSS was unsafe and prone to corruption. No idea if that was true, or just lore, but it wasn't an option for work anyway.

I was mandated to use VSS in a university course in the late 90s -- one course, one project -- and we still managed to corrupt it.

Re: Microsoft Office migration from Source Depot to Git

#190

Post by jayd16 » Thu, Jun 12, 2025, 3:43 PM UTC

kccqzy wrote: post #151

noitpmeder wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My firm still uses perforce and I can't say anyone likes it at this point. You can almost see the light leaves the eyes of new hires when you tell them we don't use git like the rest of the world.

I cannot believe that new hires would be upset by the choice of version control software. They joined a new company after so many hoops and it's on them for having an open mind towards processes and tools in the new company.

A craftsman appreciates good tools.