The Hackerlab at `regexps.com`

## Preliminary Data Sheet for the Hackerlab arch

up: arch

    Package:
            Hackerlab arch (a revision control system)

    Supplier:
            regexps.com

    Function:

            Hackerlab arch performs revision control offering fancy
            features for branching and merging.  It provides distributed
            repositories (repositories spread over multiple hosts) and a
            global (world-wide) namespace for branches and revisions.

    Key Features:

            arch is simple, small, fast, and featureful.

            Distributed repositories are especially appropriate for
            projects developed in the "open source" style -- with
            geographically distributed developers and sub-teams, loosely
            and flexibly cooperating.

            Arch's fancy merging features are ideal for projects
            supporting multiple concurrent releases and/or performing a
            lot of development in separate branches.

            Postscript and HTML documentation is included.

    Licensing:

            Hackerlab arch is part of is distributed under the terms of
            the GNU General Public License, Version 2, as published by the
            Free Software Foundation.

    Prerequisites:

            standard C compiler
            Posix libc.a (standard C library)
            GNU Make
            GNU tar
            GNU patch
            most of the standard Posix shell, text, and file utilities

    Recommended and Disrecommended Applications:

            arch is brand new.  The recommended application at this stage
            is evaluation, help with porting, and help with testing.

            Given resources for robust testing, arch could be made ready
            for heavy-duty, mission critical application within months --
            but absent those resources, arch suffers from the risks
            associated with brand-new software.

            If your projects are characterized by distributed development,
            consider evaluating arch and finding ways to contribute to a
            polished, commercial-quality release.

    Limitations:

            The primary limitation is that arch needs porting and testing.

            A secondary limitation is that arch likes to operate on
            whole-trees, not individual files.  This limitation can be
            overcome with further development, though it remains to be
            seen if user's truly miss such features.

    Size:

            The core of arch is around 40K lines of code, mostly shell and
            awk scripts.

            Small parts of arch rely on the Hackerlab C library, which
            adds considerably to the overall code size.  It is possible to
            eliminate this dependency, but not necessarily desirable.

    Performance:

            Arch has some nice performance characteristics.

            Repositories are stored in compressed format and tree-deltas
            are efficiently represented.  This both saves disk space and
            reduces network traffic.

            On the client side, arch makes heavy use of caching to speed
            up some operations and make detached operation possible.

    Support:

            To purchase an alternative license, request additional
            features, or for any kind of support assistance, you can
            contact us at "hackerlab@regexps.com" or via our web site
            "www.regexps.com".  We can also be reached at (412) 401-5204.

arch: The arch Revision Control System
The Hackerlab at `regexps.com`