Re: [RFC] Git User's Survey 2008

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