Version control

[Peter Morris]

Which version control solution can you guys recommend? Requirements are

01: Must work okay over the Internet.
02: VS2005 integration, so it gets + locks files as you edit them.

I've been trying SourceAnyWhere but it now takes 39 seconds to open my
solution!

Thanks

Pete

 

[Jon Skeet [C# MVP]]

Which version control solution can you guys recommend? Requirements are

01: Must work okay over the Internet.
02: VS2005 integration, so it gets + locks files as you edit them.

I've been trying SourceAnyWhere but it now takes 39 seconds to open my
solution!

Personally I love Subversion: http://subversion.tigris.org

 

[Peter Morris]

Hi Jon

Does that integrate into the VS2005 IDE?

Thanks

Pete

 

[Mark Rae]

Which version control solution can you guys recommend? Requirements are

01: Must work okay over the Internet.
02: VS2005 integration, so it gets + locks files as you edit them.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa718670.aspx

 

[Jon Skeet [C# MVP]]

Does that integrate into the VS2005 IDE?

Yes: http://ankhsvn.tigris.org/

 

[Jon Skeet [C# MVP]]

Which version control solution can you guys recommend? Requirements are

01: Must work okay over the Internet.
02: VS2005 integration, so it gets + locks files as you edit them.

I didn't spot this last bit - do you *really* need it to lock files, or
is that just what you're used to? I find the "change and merge" model
works a lot more smoothly, for all except things like project files
(and binary files, of course).

 

[Jon Skeet [C# MVP]]

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa718670.aspx

Eeww! SourceSafe is the worst version control system I've ever used.
It's slow, painful, can lose data, has an appalling UI - it's basically
grim.

Now, it *may* have improved massively in 2005, but I somehow doubt it

 

[Mark Rae]

Now, it *may* have improved massively in 2005, but I somehow doubt it

It has - beyond all recognition...

 

[Jon Skeet [C# MVP]]

It has - beyond all recognition...

To the extent that it's really ready to take on tools like Subversion?

I should definitely have a look - not that I'd really want to start
using it when svn is free, admittedly, but it would be nice to see
what's changed.

Is it still based on a lock-edit-unlock model? That was one of the
biggest productivity gains at my last company - moving to an edit/merge
model.

 

[Peter Bradley]

We just moved (c 6months ago) to Subversion, at my instigation. We moved
from VSS6.0a which was awful beyond describing. Some of my colleagues were
worried about the fact that Subversion did not, by default, lock files.
They are not worried now. We have had only two instances of incompatible
updates in 6 months; and we were glad that Subversion found those for us.
If the changes had been made serially under VSS, we would have been in a
mess.

It is worth noting that the VSS6 locking strategy does not prevent
incompatible updates, it just serialises them. This is the very worst
scenario, because incompatible changes are not flagged. Now that we have
persuaded our developers to update frequently (hourly even), we are very
relaxed with Subversion's default strategy.

Having said that, you can get Subversion to lock files. There might be a
justification for this for binary files like, for instance, Word documents,
because Subversion has no way of doing a diff. For text documents, we have
not found a single drawback to a non-locking strategy; and we have found
some advantages. Furthermore, some programs that use binary files, like
some modelling tools, have Subversion add-ons that allow concurrent edits
and deal with the problems of identifying differences themselves - Visual
Paradigm is an example of such a tool.

HTH


Peter

 

[Peter Bradley]

I agree. See my post below.

In fairness, you could always (and probably still can) get VSS to keep files
unlocked; but it wasn't well implemented and certainly not the default.
I've never seen the new version, but I can't see any reason for using it
when it's expensive and very unlikely to be as good as, never mind better
than, Subversion. Unless you've already paid for Team System, or whatever
it's called.

Even then, I'd still use Subversion. It's rock solid, mature and provides a
connection mode for every need (file://, svn:// and http://). The latter is
completely internet friendly and offers a wide variety of security options.

But, I haven't seen the new VSS, so I can't do a proper comparison, except
on price, of course



Peter

 

[Ignacio Machin \( .NET/ C# MVP \)]

Hi,

I do not think that it is supported over the Internet (one of the
requirements of the OP)

 

[Samuel R. Neff]

There are also VisualSVN and PushOK SVN SCC for SVN integration into
VS.NET.

http://visualsvn.com/

http://pushok.com/soft_svn.php

VisualSVN is a plugin for VS.NET that wraps TortoiseSVN (a Windows
Explorer extension) so works very well with both products. It's also
extremely fast.

PushOK's version is an SCC implementation so it'll integrate with
VS.NET perfectly, but since the SCC api is based on VSS's
checkin/checkout model it doesn't work as well with SVN (some things
are a little hoaky).

We recently switched our whole company from PushOK to VisualSVN. Both
products are commercial, but they're cheap.

Sam


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[Samuel R. Neff]

SourceGear vault works well of the internet and is made specifically
to follow the VSS/SCC model so works well with VS.NET.

http://www.sourcegear.com/vault/index.html

I've used it at a previous job and liked it (compared to Visual Source
Safe) but I strongly prefer Subversion with VisualSVN.

Sam

 

[Mark Rae]

I do not think that it is supported over the Internet (one of the
requirements of the OP)

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa718670.aspx

See "New features include:"

 

[Mark Rae]

To the extent that it's really ready to take on tools like Subversion?

I can't comment on that, having never tried Subversion...

I should definitely have a look - not that I'd really want to start
using it when svn is free, admittedly, but it would be nice to see
what's changed.

Can't hurt to look...

Is it still based on a lock-edit-unlock model? That was one of the
biggest productivity gains at my last company - moving to an edit/merge
model.

Both models are supported, AFAIK...

 

[Mark Rae]

But, I haven't seen the new VSS, so I can't do a proper comparison, except
on price, of course

It comes as part of my MSDN subscription...

 

[Mark Rae]

Is it still based on a lock-edit-unlock model? That was one of the
biggest productivity gains at my last company - moving to an edit/merge
model.

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/th1ac915(VS.80).aspx

See File Merge Improvements re the Copy-Modify-Merge workstyle - is this
what you mean...?

 

[PS]

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa718670.aspx

Mark, how is the performance over the internet? I used the previous version
via a WAN and each file checkout was a painful experience.

 

[PS]

I didn't spot this last bit - do you *really* need it to lock files, or
is that just what you're used to? I find the "change and merge" model
works a lot more smoothly, for all except things like project files
(and binary files, of course).

Agree, get and lock can be frustrating even in a small team, and expecially
if working remotely. Merging is the way to go.