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From: pete@esosun.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: RCS vs. SCCS and make
Message-ID: <42@loki.esosun.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 5-Jun-87 14:42:51 EDT
Article-I.D.: loki.42
Posted: Fri Jun  5 14:42:51 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 6-Jun-87 19:45:04 EDT
References: <41@esosun.UUCP> <20393@sun.uucp>
Reply-To: pete@esosun.UUCP (Pete Ware)
Organization: SAIC, San Diego
Lines: 43

In article <20393@sun.uucp> guy%gorodish@Sun.COM (Guy Harris) writes:
>Define "fading away".

Fading away means it is available at proportionally fewer sites compared
to some short time ago.  Dying means it is availabe at fewer sites then
some short time ago.

>Define "prefer".

Preferring SCCS means it is used in house and supported whereas RCS 
is not used in house and is not provided.  I certainly sympathize with
not wanting to support two source control systems, however I would
like to be able to choose one or the other (even if one is not supported).

I was looking for a technical reason (which is why I sited Sun, because
I knew they used SCCS and I knew you (Guy) would provide a response)
for using SCCS vs RCS.  The chief argument against RCS is that SCCS is
more widely available (and supported).  On the other hand, I was hoping
to get a slew of responses saying, "Yes, RCS is supported/provided on
our machine" and remove this argument against RCS.

>					(The time to retrieve a
>version from SCCS is pretty much constant; the time to retrieve a
>version from RCS increases the older the revision or, more generally,
>the more changes have to be applied to the version "currently" stored
>in the RCS file.)
>

I thought the time to retrieve a version from SCCS was proportional
to the number of changes since the original version was created.  In
other words, a lot of versions implies slow retrieve time for SCCS.
I'd imagine the time to retrieve intermediate versions (i.e. between 1.1
and the current version) is completely dependant on the number of changes
between (1.1 for SCCS and current version of RCS) and the desired version.

I mentioned make because I also wanted to know those systems that I
can count on typing "make" and have it retrieve the appropriate files
from SCCS/RCS without having to go and check out every file in sight.

Thanks for posting the diffs.  I'm sure many people will appreciate it
-- 

{seismo,sdcsvax}!esosun!pete	(Pete Ware) (619) 458-2520