SVN vs DVCS
Yes, that's a very good point (although in my experience it takes a very long time to do the initial download of the SVN repository). I'm not an expert on these systems, but I imagine the main downside (other than speed) of having SVN upstream is that you have to keep the history linear,
That (non-linear history) is IMHO the biggest drawback of DVCS because that means there is no way to link a particular build to the source status and you cannot use globally valid build numbers.
Git (and I'm sure the others) provides a globally unique id for each revision. Isn't that sufficient?
But feature branches are as easily (IMHO even more easily since you can closely monitor what others are contributing) worked on with SVN (routinely used with R) so I'm not sure what DVCS would buy you.
Feature branches are _much_ easier with git - to the point where some people suggest using a separate feature branch for every feature you develop.
AFAICS the only benefit of DVCS is that if you are on a remote island without any internet connection you can accumulate multiple commits before merging them back. I can't say that I desperately need that functionality ;).
You have never worked on an airplane or other location without internet access? You must have lived a very privileged life ;) Hadley
Assistant Professor / Dobelman Family Junior Chair Department of Statistics / Rice University http://had.co.nz/