What GUI tools are available for which DVCS?
- by Macneil
When I worked at Sun, we used a DVC system called Forte SCCS/Teamware, which used the old SCCS file format, but was a true distributed source code revision control system.
One nice feature is that it had strong GUI support:
You could bringover and putback changes by simply clicking and dragging.
It would draw trees/graphs showing how workspaces relate to each other.
You also could have a graph view to display a single file's complete history, which might have had several branches and merges. Allowing you to compare any two points.
It also had a strong visual merge tool, to let you accept changes from one of two conflicting files.
Naturally, many of the current DVCSs have command line support for these operations, but I'm looking for GUI support in order to use this in a lower-level undergraduate course I'll be teaching.
I'm not saying the Forte Teamware solution was perfect, but it did seem to be ahead of the curve. Unfortunately, it's not a viable option to use for my class.
Question: What support do the current DVCSs have with regards to GUIs? Do any of them work on Windows, and not just Linux? Are they "ready for prime-time" or still works in progress? Are these standalone or built as plug-ins, e.g., for Eclipse?
Note: To help keep this discussion focused I'm only interested in GUI tools. And not a meta-discussion if GUI tools should be used in teaching.
