> Underlying technology aside, mercurial has (I think) quite objectively better cli interface.
I disagree. The fact that mercurial relied extensively on extensions to implent basic features, thus exposing a non-standard interface to the world, made it's mental load significantly higher than simply using a standardized (albeit debatable) interface to do standard things.
Case in point: requiring installing extensions to stash local changes.
> relied extensively on extensions to implent basic features
Sorry, this is a strawman. Yes, `hg shelve` is a very nice extension. But that's about the only add-on I've ever needed, while working more than 7 years on reasonably complex projects spanning about a dozen teams, in multiple timezones and repositories. And it takes less than 5 minutes to install.
We were forced to move to Git after being acquired, and while the migration was painless, the day-to-day friction caused by Git porcelain is notably higher than with Mercurial. The issues caused by line-endings alone waste more time than all the Mercurial issues combined.
It really isn't,and you cannot hide Mercurial's failings by trying to move the goal post.
It's a fact that Mercurial's non-standard interface created a mental load for basic ops that is considerably higher that git's reliable and predictable (and, more importantly, learnable) interface.
> Yes, `hg shelve` is a very nice extension. But that's about the only add-on I've ever needed.
It's not a "nice extension". It's core functionality, which is a part of any basic introductory workflow.
And with mercurial instead of just being able to stash changes with a simple $ git stash , all of a sudden you need to bother with installations and setups and configs and checking if everything is it's place.
Just. To. Stash. A. Change.
And if you find stashing nothing more than "a nice extension", and nothing else pops into your mind, then you clearly have limited experience in using revision control systems.
> And it takes less than 5 minutes to install.
Did you failed to notice that it forces you to waste time ensuring you're bolting on all the stuff you need whenever you jump a seat or pop into an instance?
And did you failed to realize this problem is not experienced with pretty much any revision control system? Not just git, but pretty much all of them.
I disagree. The fact that mercurial relied extensively on extensions to implent basic features, thus exposing a non-standard interface to the world, made it's mental load significantly higher than simply using a standardized (albeit debatable) interface to do standard things.
Case in point: requiring installing extensions to stash local changes.