Re: Thoughts on choosing a source code control system?
Re: Thoughts on choosing a source code control system?
- Subject: Re: Thoughts on choosing a source code control system?
- From: email@hidden
- Date: Sun, 12 Mar 2006 17:49:38 -0800
The first couple of years we were in business I mostly worked by
myself (we had other programmers but they each had their own
project). My source code control method was to make a copy of the
source file, with the date appended to the name, before I worked on
it. Other than the occasional time when I forgot to do this, the
method worked fine and served me well. Having all the previous
versions of the file right there came in very handy on more than one
occasion.
However, time marched on and I started working on one website with
several other programmers; we were all doing maintenance work and so
there was no way to prevent people from stepping on each other. That
was when we adopted CVS, because it was the only package we all knew
how to use. Least pain for most gain.
In the beginning our WO projects will be mine alone, so I could forgo
source code control once again, but using it is now part of my work
process and I don't really want to go back to having to remember to
make copies of files. Having it also makes it easier to transfer
only stable code to the live site.
So while I don't dispute your assertion, I think having one is the
right choice for us. Thankfully I am the management (or damagement,
take your pick :) and I get to make the hopefully informed decisions
that others will follow.
janine
On Mar 12, 2006, at 5:08 PM, Ian Joyner wrote:
Now what are your real requirements? I'll throw in another thought
for you – don't bother with an SCS at all! For small companies and
small projects they really are not necessary and add so much
overhead that you almost have to employ an expert to get whichever
one you choose working.
Rather than wasting such resources, the money is better spent on
someone who really understands software structure will get your
class structure right and develop neat programs. Perhaps once that
is right, an SCS might help, but too often the reverse is the case
and an SCS is used to help manage a mess of a software system.
Of course, this comment might start off the real religious war
since the process and methodology people don't like the real truth
to be known that they are really just hiding behind their tools
("the project failed, but don't blame us we did everything right
according to some misguided book"). Since I don't know the real
structure of your company or development team I can't really
comment, but I can only say that SCS systems are not necessarily a
mandatory part of the development process, and it is worth thinking
about, since none of these tools seem to be without their problems
(which you must expend energy and resources to solve).
(Oh yeah and be wary of the marketing pitch of these methodologies
that says you are obviously a hacker if you are not using this or
that tool. They know how to make people feel inferior if they are
not using them and of course can go straight to management, who
will fall for the pitch. Goes back to the SA/SD days and probably
further, but I know even Larry Constantine who wrote the book with
Yourdon woke up to that one and moved on.)
OK, I'm going back to reading "Object-Oriented Software
Construction" now.
Ian
On 12/03/2006, at 8:24 AM, email@hidden wrote:
Hi all,
I hope this doesn't kick off a flame war; I know this can be one
of those semi-religious topics. But I'm hoping we can have a
civil discussion about it.
I've used CVS forever, and want to move into something more
modern. I heard from several people I really trust that Perforce
is da bomb, and in my tests it worked just fine. I had occasion
to use their support, and was impressed by how good it was.
However, the $800 per seat cost is pretty steep for a small
company, and it seemed clear from reading both the Xcode and WO
lists that there are a lot of people using Subversion. So I
decided to look into that.
After reading through the Manning book on Subversion, I was
starting to have doubts. There were a distressing number of
places where the author seemed to be giving workarounds to
limitations in Subversion, without quite admitting that was what
he was doing. I just didn't feel like I was reading about a
polished product, one that would be so much better than CVS that
it would be worth the effort to switch. However the siren call of
"free" was still beckoning me, so I started monitoring the
Subversion user's list.
I don't read all the posts there but from the ones I do read it
seems like a bit of a pattern is emerging. The users there are
extremely protective of their software of choice, and they don't
take kindly to people suggesting improvements. There was recently
a knockdown dragout over whether the "cvs tag" functionality
should be added to Subversion or not. Additionally, it appears
that the Subversion developers are not terribly interested in what
the user community cares about; a good number of the replies on
the tags thread could be boiled down to "Subversion rulez, we
don't need no stinkin' tags, and why are you bothering to argue
about this since the developers don't take requests". It was not
a terribly impressive or inspiring exchange. I've been part of
communities like this before and it seems to me that when the
users have a bad attitude they usually caught it from the
developers, and when the developers have a bad attitude the
software ends up suffering.
OTOH, there have been some big splashy conversions to Subversion
lately; Sourceforge is now offering it, among others. So it's
not like the Subversion project is going to fade into petulant
obscurity any time soon, even if they deserved to.
So... any thoughts on why I should (or should not) go with
Subversion or Perforce or something else entirely are all
welcome. Also, for those using Subversion, are you using it
through Xcode or with some other front end? It seems that some of
it's limitations can be solved by using the right client software,
but there are so many to choose from that it's hard to tell which
one is the best.
Thanks!
janine
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