Comment by xg15
2 days ago
But if all systems are so similar anyway, why would you need "the right tool for the job"?
If nothing else, you have to install it. There will also be subtle differences between concepts, e.g. git and svn both have versions and branches, but the concepts behave differently. I don't know about Mercurial, but I'm sure they have their own quirks as well.
Also, tooling: I have a VSCode plugin that visualizes the entire graph structure of a git repo really nicely. Right now, I can use that on 99% of all repos to get an overview of the branches, last commits, activity, etc.
If version systems were fragmented, I'd have to look for equivalent tools for every versioning system separately - if they exist at all. More likely, I'd be restricted just to the on-board tools of every system.
> But if all systems are so similar anyway, why would you need "the right tool for the job"?
They’re similar in the UI but the underlying architecture is vastly different, to accomplish different goals - sometimes what you want is an entirely centralized VCS, decentralized VCS, or a mix of both.
As for the tooling, any decent IDE supports different systems equally well. With IntelliJ I can use Git, SVN, and even CVS through the same UI. But yes, VSCode plugin XYZ doesn’t.