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Re: [RFC] Git User's Survey 2007

From
PCPaolo Ciarrocchi <paolo.ciarrocchi@gmail.com>
Date
Jul 29, 2007, 16:50 UTC
Message-ID
<4d8e3fd30707290950lce19ef4g103cbb7ad1abbe23@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To
<200707271320.06313.jnareb@gmail.com>
On 7/27/07, Jakub Narebski <jnareb@gmail.com> wrote:
> It's been more than a year since last Git User's Survey. It would be
> interesting to find what changed since then. Therefore the idea to
> have another survey.

Hi Jakub, sorry for the late answer, I've been away from my PC having fun on a beach for a few days. I'm now back home, I have my Menabrea beer with me so I can try to provide some useful comments :-)

> 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?

I vote for the survey.net.nz approach. I think that from a user prospective that's the right thing to do, we can have "multiple choice questions" and avoid some of the more common mistakes.

Show 10 quoted lines
> Second, what questions should be put in the survey, and in the case of
> single choice and ultiple choice questions what possible answers
> should be? Below are slightly extended questions from the last
> survey. Please comment on it.
>
> Third, where to send survey to? I was thinking about git mailing list,
> LKML, and mailing list for git projects found on GitProjects page on
> GIT wiki. Do you want to add some address? Or should info about GIT
> User's Survey 2007 be sent also to one of on-line magazines like
> LinuxToday, or asked to put on some blog?

I think that one of the mistakes I did when I sent out the first survey was to not contact any magazines and blog.

Show 9 quoted lines
> References:
>   http://marc.info/?l=git&m=115116592330648&w=2
>   http://marc.info/?l=git&m=115364303813936&w=2
>   http://git.or.cz/gitwiki/GitSurvey
>
> ----
> About you
>
>     1. What country are you in?

I know that lot of people will disagree with me but from a pure statistical prospective I'd like to add a couple of questions about gender and age. I understand very well that these questions will not be useful for making git any better but it will be interesting to have a better picture abut the git customer base.

Show 39 quoted lines
>     2. What is your preferred non-programming language?
>     3. Which programming languages you are proficient with?
>        (zero or more: multiple choice)
>     -  C, shell, Perl, Python, Tcl/Tk
>
> Getting started with GIT
>
>     1. How did you hear about GIT?
>     2. Did you find GIT easy to learn?
>     -  very easy/easy/reasonably/hard/very hard
>     3. What helped you most in learning to use it?
>     4. What did you find hardest?
>     5. When did you start using git? From which version?
>
> How you use GIT
>
>     1. Do you use GIT for work, unpaid projects, or both?
>        work/unpaid projects/work
>     2. How do you obtain GIT?  Source tarball, binary package, or
>        pull the main repository?
>     -  binary package/source tarball/pull from main repository
>     3. What hardware platforms do you use GIT on?
>     *  examples: i386, x86_64, ARM, PowerPC, Alpha, g5, ...
>     4. What OS (please include the version) do you use GIT on?
>     *  examples: Linux, MS Windows (Cygwin/MinGW/gitbox),
>        IRIX, HP-UX, Solaris, FreeBSD, ...
>        (please give kernel version and distribution for Linux)
>     5. How many people do you collaborate with using GIT?
>     6. How big are the repositories that you work on? (e.g. how many
>        files, how much disk space, how deep is the history?)
>     *  number of files in repository: "git ls-tree -r HEAD | wc -l"
>     *  pack size of freshly cloned fully packed repository
>     *  number of commits in straight line, number of commits in branch
>        ("git rev-list --first-parent HEAD | wc -l",
>         "git rev-list HEAD | wc -l")
>     7. How many different projects do you manage using GIT?
>     8. Which porcelains do you use?
>        (zero or more: multiple choice)
>     -  core-git, cogito, StGIT, pg, guilt, other
git-gui ?
Show 76 quoted lines
>     9. Which git GUI do you use
>        (zero or more: multiple choice)
>     -  gitk, git-gui, qgit, gitview, giggle, other
>    10. Which git web interface do you use for your projects?
>     -  gitweb/cgit/wit (Ruby)/git-php/other
>    11. How do you publish/propagate your changes?
>        (zero or more: multiple choice)
>     -  push, pull request, format-patch + email, bundle, other
>    12. Does git.git repository include code produced by you?
>     -  yes/no
>
> Internationalization
>     1. Is translating GIT required for wider adoption?
>     -  yes/no/somewhat
>     2. What do you need translated?
>        (zero or more: multiple choice)
>     -  GUI (git-gui, gitk, qgit, ...), git-core messages,
>         manpages, other documentation
>     3. For what language do you need translation for?
>
> What you think of GIT
>
>     1. Overall, how happy are you with GIT?
>     -  unhappy/not so happy/happy/very happy/completely extatic
>     2. How does GIT compare to other SCM tools you have used?
>     -  worse/equal (or comparable)/better
>     3. What do you like about using GIT?
>     4. What would you most like to see improved about GIT?
>        (features, bugs, plugins, documentation, ...)
>     5. If you want to see GIT more widely used, what do you
>        think we could do to make this happen?
>
> Documentation
>
>     1. Do you use the GIT wiki?
>     -  yes/no
>     2. Do you find GIT wiki useful?
>     -  yes/no/somewhat
>     3. Do you contribute to GIT wiki?
>     -  yes/no/only corrections or spam removal
>     4. Do you find GIT's online help (homepage, documentation) useful?
>     -  yes/no/somewhat
>     5. Do you find help distributed with GIT useful
>        (manpages, manual, tutorial, HOWTO, release notes)?
>     -  yes/no/somewhat
>     6. Do you contribute to GIT documentation?
>     -  yes/no
>     7. What is your favourite user documentation for any software
>        projects or products you have used?
>     8. What could be improved on the GIT homepage?
>
> Getting help, staying in touch
>
>     1. Have you tried to get GIT help from other people?
>     -  yes/no
>     2. If yes, did you get these problems resolved quickly
>        and to your liking?
>     -  yes/no
>     3. Do you subscribe to the mailing list?
>     -  yes/no
>     4. Do you read the mailing list? What method do you use?
>     -  subscribed/news interface/RSS interface/archives/
>        /post + reply-to request/digests/I don't read it
>     5. If yes, do you find it useful?
>     -  yes/no (optional)
>     6. Do you find traffic levels on GIT mailing list OK.
>     -  yes/no? (optional)
>     7. Do you use the IRC channel (#git on irc.freenode.net)?
>     -  yes/no
>     8. If yes, do you find IRC channel useful?
>     -  yes/no (optional)
>
> Open forum
>
>     1. What other comments or suggestions do you have that are not
>        covered by the questions above?

How about adding a question about whether the user migrated from a different SCM? If so, from which SCM and why?

Regards,
-- 
Paolo
Previous: Andy ParkinsNext: Paolo Ciarrocchi
Message 9 of 46 in “Git User's Survey 2007”
  1. Jakub NarebskiJul 25, 2007
  2. Marco CostalbaJul 25, 2007
  3. Steven GrimmJul 26, 2007
  4. [RFC] Git User's Survey 2007Jakub Narebski, Jul 27, 2007
  5. Nguyen Thai Ngoc DuyJul 27, 2007
  6. Andy ParkinsJul 27, 2007
  7. Jakub NarebskiJul 27, 2007
  8. Andy ParkinsJul 28, 2007
  9. Paolo CiarrocchiJul 29, 2007
  10. Paolo CiarrocchiJul 29, 2007
  11. Jakub NarebskiJul 30, 2007
  12. Shawn O. PearceJul 30, 2007
  13. Jakub NarebskiJul 30, 2007
  14. Paolo CiarrocchiJul 30, 2007
  15. Jakub NarebskiJul 30, 2007
  16. David KastrupJul 30, 2007
  17. Junio C HamanoJul 30, 2007
  18. Jakub NarebskiJul 30, 2007
  19. David KastrupJul 30, 2007
  20. Nguyen Thai Ngoc DuyJul 30, 2007
  21. Jakub NarebskiJul 30, 2007
  22. [RFC (take 2) Git User's Survey 2007Jakub Narebski, Jul 30, 2007
  23. Shawn O. PearceJul 31, 2007
  24. Jakub NarebskiJul 31, 2007
  25. Shawn O. PearceJul 31, 2007
  26. Junio C HamanoJul 31, 2007
  27. Shawn O. PearceJul 31, 2007
  28. Jakub NarebskiJul 31, 2007
  29. Paolo CiarrocchiJul 31, 2007
  30. Jakub NarebskiJul 31, 2007
  31. Git User's Survey 2007 - web survey siteJakub Narebski, Jul 31, 2007
  32. Paolo CiarrocchiJul 31, 2007
  33. Martin LanghoffAug 2, 2007
  34. Paolo CiarrocchiAug 2, 2007
  35. [RFC (take 3)] Git User's Survey 2007Jakub Narebski, Aug 4, 2007
  36. Shawn O. PearceAug 4, 2007
  37. Jakub NarebskiAug 4, 2007
  38. David KastrupAug 4, 2007
  39. Jakub NarebskiAug 5, 2007
  40. Johannes SchindelinAug 6, 2007
  41. Asger Ottar AlstrupAug 5, 2007
  42. Jakub NarebskiAug 6, 2007
  43. Asger Ottar AlstrupAug 6, 2007
  44. Jakub NarebskiAug 6, 2007
  45. [RFC (take 4)] Git User's Survey 2007Jakub Narebski, Aug 5, 2007
  46. [RFC (final)] Git User's Survey 2007Jakub Narebski, Aug 14, 2007

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