Source Control - Who uses it?

[Answer]

I am a single developer as a hobbie basically. But im embarking on a pretty complex and large project. I have 3 computers i develope on, home , work and laptop. I currently have a zip drive connected to each with some syncronization software installed, so i jsut pop the disk in, it auto copies the files to disk, blah blah blah. Its very slick, clean and easy.

 

I see though that a lot of projects use either CVS, subversion or perforce(i like this one). Besides the multiple developer issue, is source control something i should spend the time to learn and use given my situation? What do you guys think? Becuase im really torn on what to do!

[Jaco]

There are two main reasons for Source Control software:

 

1. Multiple developers working on the same files (at different times). It's just too easy to lose work without source control in this case.

 

2. You want to track and easily view various versions or builds of an app. You may have to support different versions of your software. This is much easier to do with source control software.

[Joe Mamma]

I am a single developer as a hobbie basically. But im embarking on a pretty complex and large project. I have 3 computers i develope on, home , work and laptop. I currently have a zip drive connected to each with some syncronization software installed, so i jsut pop the disk in, it auto copies the files to disk, blah blah blah. Its very slick, clean and easy.

 

I see though that a lot of projects use either CVS, subversion or perforce(i like this one). Besides the multiple developer issue, is source control something i should spend the time to learn and use given my situation? What do you guys think? Becuase im really torn on what to do!

Definitely a good skill to have on your tool belt!!!

Can be the difference between landing the job and not.

[Nerseus]

Even if you never plan on working in a team, I'd use some kind of source control system. I use one at work and at home, even on test projects. I can't count the number of times I'd be writing a test project, change a bunch of test code (just prototypes mostly) and wish I could get back to where I was an hour ago, two hours ago or a day ago. Often my test projects morph around, sometimes testing APIs, sometimes testing Math functions, etc.

 

If you use Visual Studio, I'd see if any of the programs you're looking at integrate "easily" with it. For example, Visual SourceSafe (from MS) lets you right click a file and "check out", "check in", "compare versions" and more.

 

-Nerseus

[Answer]

Right now, im currently evaluating Perforce, they are a commercial product, but they offer a two client license for free and also open source licenses. Two client works great for a single developer like myself, and the best part about it, is that it integrates with vs.net and comes with a bunch of other ways of accessing the depot.

 

I still would like hear other peoples opinions on the matter....any negatives? Also, what software do you use?

Edited April 8, 2004 by Answer

[TechnoTone]

I too use Microsoft's Visual SourceSafe. It works well enough for me.

[PlausiblyDamp]

I personally tend to use CVS (it's free for starters). Newer versions integrate well with windows (http://www.cvsnt.org) and are fairly easy to setup if you follow the instructions. Requiring only 1 port for access it also works through a firewall quite easily.

As for a client then http://www.tortoisecvs.org is a very nice windows shell extension (they also do a VS.Net plugin) that makes checking in/out, diffing, merging changes etc only a few mouse clicks.

[Derek Stone]

Don't forget SourceGear Vault either. A single-user license is free of charge. Plus the system is programmed in .NET and uses Microsoft SQL Server as a data store. Works over firewalls as well, since it's Web services-based.

[alt]

And I prefer WinCVS.

I have repositories on linux box where I can connect over SSH.

I like CVS because I'm programming on different platforms and different languages, including .NET

[iebidan]

you need a source control when many guys work at the same time in the same solution, I don't use it when I work at home

BTW I use Visual Source Safe at work

[CattleRustler]

just the rollback feature alone is worth the price of admission - we use VSS 6.0c

 

fyi...

(I saw an update on MS site for VSS to 6.0d

Also, if you use Visual Studio 6 the final and latest Service Pack has been released)

[Malfunction]

Is VSS shipped with VSN?

I'm working with the Enterprise edition would I have to pay for a VSS liscence?

 

Edit: Does anyone really use VSS? Is it really that bad:

http://www.epinions.com/content_127799692932

[PlausiblyDamp]

You may want to read this thread for some more opinions.

Personally I feel there are easier / cheaper (free) alternatives to VSS, check the links myself and Derek posted above and you may also want to look at http://subversion.tigris.org/ as another alternative

[Nerseus]

@Malfunction: I read some of that review - he talks a LOT about bugs, but doesn't mention a single one that he saw. He claims VSS can't have multiple developers check-out a file at the same time and that is simply not true.

 

My shop currently uses VSS and I've used it for probably 6 or 7 years without EVER having a problem - no sudden crashes, no corrupt databases, nothing. I won't argue that I've heard others say they've had problems, but I've never come across a problem.

 

As for multiple check-outs, VSS does them pretty well. It provides a very nice merge function (visual of course) which works about 90% of the time. I'd say 100%, but for controls on WinForms. For some reason, if two developers have a file checked out and are tweaking controls (adding, removing, or renaming) the merge shows conflicts that must be resolved. For pretty much ALL other code, I've never had a merge problem. The merge problem with controls can be easily spot-checked before check-in through the "Merge Conflict" window.

 

This is not to say VSS is not without problems. VSS, like most other source control systems from what I've heard (dreaded rumors), doesn't work well when you rename or move a file in Visual Studio. Meaning, VSS won't really delete the old file on a rename, it just makes a copy. You have to remember to go delete the file from sourcesafe manually.

 

It's backup/restore process also takes a LONG time, even for relatively small databases.

 

The branching/merging feature is nice but doesn't work well if you want to be able to do a "temporary" branch and merge later. The new version of VSS is supposed to help with this, but I haven't tried it.

 

Also, he's right that you can only "see" files are available on your network. It doesn't use a protocol, such as http, to see files on the internet. I've personally never had a problem with this. It could very well be an issue if you have developers that are far away and you don't provide a VPN connection. I'd think you'd at least want to setup an HTTPS server (secure web server) if you wanted to expose your company's files over the internet and that seems harder than a VPN, but that's just my simplified view.

 

As a note about that review Malfunction pointed to - he claims to have reviewed VSS 7.0. At the time of his review (Jan '04) that was likely in an alpha or early beta stage - if it was released at all. He mentions the version numerous times so I don't think it was a typo. The new version of sourcesafe isn't even called SourceSafe - it's TeamShare (I think). I would guess he reviewed version 6x from his comments but if so, he hasn't used it THAT extensively. As I mentioned, he claims certain things that are just wrong.

 

Darn, my "review" was almost as big as his :)

 

-ner