Why the software history was not kept?

[gustavopinto]

Hi there,

I'm a researcher studying software evolution. As part of my current research, I'm studying the implications of open-sourcing a proprietary software, for instance, if the project succeed in attracting newcomers. However, I observed that some projects, like petitions, deleted their software history when transitioning to open-source.

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Knowing that software history is indispensable for developers (e.g., developers need to refer to history several times a day), I would like to ask petitions developers the following four brief questions:

1. Why did you decide to not keep the software history?
2. Do the core developers faced any kind of problems, when trying to refer to the old history? If so, how did they solve these problems?
3. Do the newcomers faced any kind of problems, when trying to refer to the old history? If so, how did they solve these problems?
4. How does the lack of history impacted on software evolution? Does it placed any burden in understanding and evolving the software?

Thanks in advance for your collaboration,

Gustavo Pinto, PhD
http://www.gustavopinto.org

[gustavopinto]

hi @TravisCarden, do you have any comments?

[TravisCarden]

Hello, @gustavopinto. The commit you refer to was made long before I had any relationship to the project. I'm not qualified to comment on the decisions of those who preceded me, and as I'm no longer active, I'm not personally authorized to answer your other questions. Sorry!