common-lisp.net and arch:
1) getting sftp access up requires no modifications to common-lisp.net's current setup. i am currently using an archive in /project/bese/bese-devel@common-lisp.net.
2) for anonymous access (read-only) it would be sufficent to symlink each project's archive directory to the wwwroot of the project.
In this setup each project that uses arch would have one public read-only archive:
http://common-lisp.net/project/PROJECT-devel@common-lisp.net
and, for write access:
sftp://DEVELOPER@common-lisp.net/project/PROJECT-devel@common-lisp.net
why arch rocks CVS' world: [i've never tried subversion or darc or bitkeeper, just CVS.]
1) branching and merging is EASY. I find myself makes lots of branches just so that i can just "try stuff out"; then merging if i decide it works.
2) renames, symlinks, directories are handled as they should.
3) changesets as opposed to single file versions.
4) local archives which mirror remote archives, each local archive is a new branch, so you can commit all you want. merging does not lose the patch history.
5) using sftp allows me to install it on any machine i want.
6) any revision can be checked and used as a complete tree (go back four versions, edit, merge, continue).
I have one major gripe: it imposes a (for me) weird naming scheme in order to distinguish files under revision contral as opposed to other files (ie it's missing .cvsignore (but you con fake it, sorta)).