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Git

296.3K
177.6K
+ 1
6.6K
Plastic SCM

40
75
+ 1
17
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Git vs Plastic SCM: What are the differences?

Git and Plastic SCM are both version control systems used for tracking changes in source code and collaborating on software development projects. Here are the key differences between Git and Plastic SCM:

  1. Distributed vs Centralized: Git is a distributed version control system, which means that each developer has a complete copy of the entire code repository on their local machine. This allows for offline work, faster operations, and better resilience to network outages. Plastic SCM, on the other hand, is a centralized version control system where the code repository is stored on a central server. Developers need to connect to the server to access the codebase and perform version control operations.

  2. Branching and Merging: Git is well-known for its powerful branching and merging capabilities. It allows for easy creation of branches, switching between branches, and merging changes from one branch to another. Plastic SCM also supports branching and merging, but it uses a branch-oriented model that provides features like branch inheritance and branch attributes, making it more suitable for complex project structures and large teams.

  3. Performance: Git is designed to be fast and optimized for performance, especially when dealing with large codebases and extensive histories. It uses efficient algorithms and data structures. Plastic SCM uses a database backend for storing and retrieving code changes. This allows Plastic SCM to handle large files and repositories efficiently, particularly in scenarios where fast database queries are crucial.

  4. User Interface and Integration: Git is known for its command-line interface (CLI), which provides powerful and fine-grained control over version control operations. It also offers GUIs and third-party tools that simplify the usage of Git. Plastic SCM provides a graphical user interface (GUI) as its primary interface, offering a visual representation of the code history, branches, and changes. It also integrates with various IDEs and development tools, providing seamless integration into the development workflow.

  5. Community and Ecosystem: Git has a large and active open-source community, making it highly popular and well-supported. Platforms like GitHub and GitLab are built around Git, offering extensive resources and plugins. Plastic SCM has a smaller user base but provides dedicated support and services, including its own hosting platform.

In summary, Git is a distributed version control system known for its branching model, performance, and extensive community support. Plastic SCM, on the other hand, is a centralized version control system that offers unique features such as a branch-oriented model and a graphical user interface.

Decisions about Git and Plastic SCM
Kamaldeep Singh

SVN is much simpler than git for the simple stuff (checking in files and updating them when everyone's online), and much more complex than git for the complicated stuff (branching and merging). Or put another way, git's learning curve is steep up front, and then increases moderately as you do weird things; SVN's learning curve is very shallow up front and then increases rapidly.

If you're storing large files, if you're not branching, if you're not storing source code, and if your team is happy with SVN and the workflow you have, I'd say you should stay on SVN.

If you're writing source code with a relatively modern development practice (developers doing local builds and tests, pre-commit code reviews, preferably automated testing, preferably some amount of open-source code), you should move to git for two reasons: first, this style of working inherently requires frequent branching and merging, and second, your ability to interact with outside projects is easier if you're all comfortable with git instead of snapshotting the outside project into SVN.

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Pros of Git
Pros of Plastic SCM
  • 1.4K
    Distributed version control system
  • 1.1K
    Efficient branching and merging
  • 959
    Fast
  • 845
    Open source
  • 726
    Better than svn
  • 368
    Great command-line application
  • 306
    Simple
  • 291
    Free
  • 232
    Easy to use
  • 222
    Does not require server
  • 27
    Distributed
  • 22
    Small & Fast
  • 18
    Feature based workflow
  • 15
    Staging Area
  • 13
    Most wide-spread VSC
  • 11
    Role-based codelines
  • 11
    Disposable Experimentation
  • 7
    Frictionless Context Switching
  • 6
    Data Assurance
  • 5
    Efficient
  • 4
    Just awesome
  • 3
    Github integration
  • 3
    Easy branching and merging
  • 2
    Compatible
  • 2
    Flexible
  • 2
    Possible to lose history and commits
  • 1
    Rebase supported natively; reflog; access to plumbing
  • 1
    Light
  • 1
    Team Integration
  • 1
    Fast, scalable, distributed revision control system
  • 1
    Easy
  • 1
    Flexible, easy, Safe, and fast
  • 1
    CLI is great, but the GUI tools are awesome
  • 1
    It's what you do
  • 0
    Phinx
  • 8
    Wanna do Branch per Task Dev? Plastic rocks it
  • 4
    No Size limite
  • 2
    File Locking
  • 2
    Simple, easy to use interfaces. Resilient and solid
  • 1
    Very fast

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Cons of Git
Cons of Plastic SCM
  • 16
    Hard to learn
  • 11
    Inconsistent command line interface
  • 9
    Easy to lose uncommitted work
  • 7
    Worst documentation ever possibly made
  • 5
    Awful merge handling
  • 3
    Unexistent preventive security flows
  • 3
    Rebase hell
  • 2
    When --force is disabled, cannot rebase
  • 2
    Ironically even die-hard supporters screw up badly
  • 1
    Doesn't scale for big data
  • 1
    Always uses automatic conflict resolution first
  • 1
    Adds files with only changed timestamp to pending
  • 1
    Keyboard shortcuts are lacking
  • 1
    Can't place windows next to each other to save space
  • 1
    No dark theme
  • 1
    Doesn't have file staging

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What companies use Plastic SCM?
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What are some alternatives to Git and Plastic SCM?
GitHub
GitHub is the best place to share code with friends, co-workers, classmates, and complete strangers. Over three million people use GitHub to build amazing things together.
SVN (Subversion)
Subversion exists to be universally recognized and adopted as an open-source, centralized version control system characterized by its reliability as a safe haven for valuable data; the simplicity of its model and usage; and its ability to support the needs of a wide variety of users and projects, from individuals to large-scale enterprise operations.
Bitbucket
Bitbucket gives teams one place to plan projects, collaborate on code, test and deploy, all with free private Git repositories. Teams choose Bitbucket because it has a superior Jira integration, built-in CI/CD, & is free for up to 5 users.
Perforce
Visibility, access control, workflow and code management for Git environments. Flexibility of collaborating on the same codebase and code reviews using any combination of Perforce and Git workflows and tools without compromise.
Mercurial
Mercurial is dedicated to speed and efficiency with a sane user interface. It is written in Python. Mercurial's implementation and data structures are designed to be fast. You can generate diffs between revisions, or jump back in time within seconds.
See all alternatives