Folks,
Our development manager was evaluating transitioning our AS400
department to IBM Rational for the RPG programmers, who currently use
SEU for all their editing and source code control. I was asked about
CVS and how it compared to what they're doing now (so they wouldn't
have to pay quite as much by omitting the source code control part of
Rational) and I explained why the Java programmers don't use CVS.
We're transitioning from Subversion to Git at the moment and I tried
to explain how the paradigm of managing source code using Git was
different than what they were used to.
Today, an RPG programmer can "check out" a source member and SEU won't
let anyone else check that same member out (and it tells the developer
who has it locked). The C++ programmers here also use Visual
SourceSafe, with this same setting turned on. They are open to
shifting paradigms away from this development methodology (the "I'm
working on this source file and I don't want anyone else changing it
until I'm done") but keep in mind that AS400 programmers are NOT
cutting-edge and don't keep up with the latest development trends.
Since we're not going to fire every RPG developer we have, we need an
upgrade or transition path away from the SEU mindset to a more laissez-
faire development approach like that encouraged by using Git. But one
of the first roadblocks is going to be this notion that someone else
can work on the same file I'm working on and that this lack of control
invites errors and introduces unnecessary complexity.
How do I argue that a more open, Git-based approach to development is
"better" than the traditional, SEU-based methodology they use today?
It may be an "old" way of doing things, but SEU works for them and,
more importantly, they can understand the process. We don't share any
of our source code outside our organization and no one who would
potentially work on the source code is farther than a cubicle or two
away, so our needs in no way extend to what OpenSource projects
require, with their large and distributed developer base. Using Git
seems so open that its difficult to explain and even more difficult to
defend against traditions that are 20 years old and have an entire
industry of momentum behind them. Since Rational is eclipse-based, I'm
assuming the Git plugin for eclipse would work with Rational, but I'm
on a Mac so I have no way to test this.
I'm just wondering what the Git experts would say to someone wanting
to transition from say, Visual SourceSafe, and expecting the
predictability of having source files "locked out" while a developer
is making changes to them?
Thanks!
Jon Brisbin
Portal Webmaster
NPC International, Inc.
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