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Eric Wong on why Unicorn will not be hosted on GitHub

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Re: Eric Wong on why Unicorn will not be hosted on GitHub

#5

Post by yeukhon »

th3iedkid wrote: post #3

>>It absolutely sickens me to encounter users who seem to be incapable of using git without a proprietary communications tool. What is the proprietary communication tool which seems a must for git to work?Are they referring to SSH?or Something else am not aware?

He's referring to using Github as the communication platform /medium between developers, contributors and users.

Re: Eric Wong on why Unicorn will not be hosted on GitHub

#6

Post by cheald »

The message here seems to be "No tooling is better than proprietary tooling".

Hosting on Github wouldn't diminish the ability for people to contribute to Unicorn via the same channels they do now. It would just make it more convenient for the many people who already use it.

Re: Eric Wong on why Unicorn will not be hosted on GitHub

#7

Post by zyxley »

So... what about using Gitlab (https://about.gitlab.com/gitlab-ce/)? It's open source (MIT license), it's a (very polished) clone of Github's functionality and workflow, and it can be self-hosted.

Someone saying "please use Github" doesn't (usually) mean they only want, specifically, Github. It means they want a tool with visual forking and merge trees, a code browser that can easily reference different branches and tags, basic issue tracking in a way that can be linked to specific commits and merges, and so on.

Honestly, at the point that Mr. Wong mentioned "no need to ever touch a bloated web browser" it felt more like ranting against ~these goddamn stupid casuals who can't even bother to use the command line!!~, not about actually bothering to even try and understand what the person was requesting.

Re: Eric Wong on why Unicorn will not be hosted on GitHub

#8

Post by warbiscuit »

th3iedkid wrote: post #3

>>It absolutely sickens me to encounter users who seem to be incapable of using git without a proprietary communications tool. What is the proprietary communication tool which seems a must for git to work?Are they referring to SSH?or Something else am not aware?

I think he meant github, and the various features it offers, such as issues, pull requests, and threaded discussions thereof.

I'm also not a fan of github's monoculture (or for that matter, of git's -- i rather like mercurial). I've only got one or two open-source projects out there, but I've encountered the "you are aware of github, right? why are you using " mindset before.

Ideally, git or mercurial or some dvcs gains the ability to track messages and issue tracking within the repository allowing multiple frontends (such as github) to make use of a common backend model. But until then, while github is nice, I think it shouldn't be a necessary requirement for running a project, merely a sufficient one. Homogeny breeds fragility, and all.

Re: Eric Wong on why Unicorn will not be hosted on GitHub

#10

Post by heygrady »

Seems like a logical extreme. Github is largely compatible with normal git. For instance, I've use other git services, like Bit Bucket, and not noticed much of a difference. While it is certainly for profit, it also offers some really useful tools that make hosting open source software and communicating with developers really easy. Github is useful for web developers in particular (I'm one) but I imagine other developer communities would benefit.

It seems like a hollow argument to malign Github just because it wrapped something useful in its own right (Git) with a set of tools that raise its usefulness enormously (Github). And if you end up having an issue with Git, if you've got a local checkout it's 100% Git compatible and you can migrate it anywhere you'd like.

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