This currently an unsorted list of asked questions.
Packages can contain large files, esp. some tar balls can become quite large, in some real life examples several hundred mega bytes. This can be a problem when you need to work on the package via a slow connection.
The web interface is the easiest way to edit simple things without the need of the checkout.
Disadvantages are
osc offers to skip files with a certain size (specified with -l switch) on checkout. The limit is stored locally and you can also run an update later without downloading any large files. All other files can be edited, diffed and committed as usual.
Disadvantages are
Manage your large files via source services. The easiest way is to use
osc add $URLwhich just stores a small _service file. The check will not contain the large files by default, but they get downloaded when needed via the service. However, they will never get committed, so this is the best approach when you have a fast downstream, but slow upstream like with standard DSL connections. Also other users can trust your tar ball, esp. important when you do version upgrades on foreign packages.
Disadvantages are
Manage your large files via source services in try local mode for example with download_url or download_files service. This means you can be flexible depending on your current connection without changing the setup. The service is generating the file on the server side when you decide not to commit it, but you can also decide to commit it and avoid the _service: prefix on the files. Also other users can trust your tar ball, esp. important when you do version upgrades on foreign packages.
Disadvantages are