Re: [RFC] Git User's Survey 2008

[Johannes Schindelin <Johannes.Schindelin@gmx.de>]

Hi,

On Wed, 23 Jul 2008, Jakub Narebski wrote:

> First there is a question about the form of survey. Should we use web
> based survey, as the survey before (http://www.survey.net.nz), sending
> emails with link to this survey, or perhaps do email based survey,
> with email Reply-To: address put for this survey alone?

Some people prefer to stay anonymous, so I think email is out.

>    04. Which programming languages you are proficient with?
>        (The choices include programming languages used by git)
>        (zero or more: multiple choice)
>      - C, shell, Perl, Python, Tcl/Tk
>      + (should we include other languages, like C++, Java, PHP,
>         Ruby,...?)

Yes, I think this should be a long list.

>    07. What helped you most in learning to use it?
>        (free form question)

Is it possible to have multiple choice, with "other" (free-form)?  Then 
I'd suggest:

	Colleague/Instructor, User Manual, Manpages, Tutorials, Tutorials 
	(elsewhere; not in git.git), Mailing list, IRC, Git Wiki, Other.

>    08. What did you find hardest in learning Git?
>        What did you find harderst in using Git?

s/harderst/hardest.

>        (free form question)

Again, I'd suggest a multiple choice + Other:

	The amount of commands, the amount of options, the index (AKA 
	staging), branching, user interface, bugs, Other.

> Other SCMs (shortened compared with 2007 survey)
> 
>    10. What other SCM did or do you use?
>        (zero or more: multiple choice)
>      - CVS, Subversion, GNU Arch or arch clone (ArX, tla, ...),
>        Bazaar-NG, Darcs, Mercurial, Monotone, SVK, AccuRev, Perforce,
>        BitKeeper, ClearCase, MS Visual Source Safe, MS Visual Studio
>        Team System, custom, other(*)

PVCS seems to be pretty popular, too.

>    11. Why did you choose Git? (if you use Git)
>        What do you like about using Git?
>        (free form, not to be tabulated)

Again, to avoid hassles with free-form:

	Mandatory: work, mandatory: open source project I am participating 
	in, speed, scalability, It's What Linus Uses, Other.

>    12. Why did you choose other SCMs? (if you use other SCMs)
>        What do you like about using other SCMs?
>        Note: please write name of SCMs you are talking about.
>        (free form, not to be tabulated).

Again:

	ease-of use, simplicity, existing project uses it, I Do Not Like 
	Linus, Other

>    15. What operating system do you use Git on?
>        (one or more: multiple choice, as one can use more than one OS)
>      - Linux, *BSD (FreeBSD, OpenBSD, etc.), MS Windows/Cygwin,
>        MS Windows/msysGit, MacOS X, other UNIX, other

You should include "Dunno", which gets automatically mapped to "MS 
Windows/msysGit" ;-)

>    19. How do you publish/propagate your changes?
>        (zero or more: multiple choice)
>      - push, pull request, format-patch + email, bundle, other

git svn

You might laugh, but it is a sad fact that some guy promotes "Using Git 
with Google Code" by using git-svn to drive their crappy Subversion.

>    22. How does Git compare to other SCM tools you have used?
>      - worse/equal (or comparable)/better
>    23. What would you most like to see improved about Git?
>        (features, bugs, plug-ins, documentation, ...)

Maybe here should be another question "What are the most useful features 
of Git?" but maybe that is covered by earlier questions.

>    24. If you want to see Git more widely used, what do you
>        think we could do to make this happen?
>      + Is this question necessary/useful?  Do we need wider adoption?

I agree with Junio: this is not so interesting for us; we are no company, 
and we have no sales department who could wank of on these answers.

>    27. Which of the following features do you use?
>        (zero or more: multiple choice)
>      - git-gui or other commit tool, gitk or other history viewer, patch
>        management interface (e.g. StGIT), bundle, eol conversion,

For our Windows friends, we should add " (crlf)" to the last item.

>    42. Do you find traffic levels on Git mailing list OK.
>     -  yes/no? (optional)

/too low?  *ducksandrunsforcover*

>    44. If yes, do you find IRC channel useful?
>     -  yes/no (optional)

/somewhat.  Even if I would be the only one choosing that option.

>    45. Did you have problems getting GIT help on mailing list or
>        on IRC channel? What were it? What could be improved?
>        (free form)

Yeah, I know who will answer to that, and what... "yaddayadda very 
unfriendly yaddayadda especially that Johannes guy yaddayadda" (you know 
who you are)... *lol*

Thanks Jakub, I think that your effort is very useful.

Ciao,
Dscho