RE: Exclusive Locking

> I'm trying to translate between the two world views, here.

There has been a lot of discussion about the locking feature. A significant
percentage of the questions from new users on this list have to do with "how
do I lock my files?"

In practice, it turns out that file locking is a poor paradigm for
coordinated development. It is only ever useful for non-mergable files when
communication between developers is poor. At all other times, it is a
burden. You're better off with improved communication on projects than with
locking.

I'm actually dreading the time when this "feature" is included in
Subversion. I sincerely hope there is a way to disable it on the server so
developers can't use it at all. I know some people who, when they were new
to Subversion, would have locked every single file they worked on. Every
time. No exceptions. Fortunately, they have now adapted to the merge model,
and have come to trust it. That trust was earned, let me tell you!

For people who only understand the locking paradigm, it will be an uphill
battle to teach them that there is another, better, way.

Good luck merging your two world views. ;)

--- Eric Wadsworth

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Received on Thu Aug 26 01:01:32 2004