version control can be fun

02.17.05


Contrary to past experiences in my development control, version control can be easy and fun. Here's a list of tools I've used at work in the past:
  • cvs :|
  • perforce :\
  • pvcs :(
  • custom in-house vcs :(
  • visual source safe :|
I'm generally pretty pessimistic about version control, especially after witnessing corporations pay thousands of dollars for these commercial tools which were just riddled with bugs and lame limitations. But the other day I finally got around to creating my own personal source repository at home. I used subversion to see if the hype is true...and now I can say, I think the hype is somewhat true. I'm no vcs expert, but I feel like subversion has taken a simple concept that is made vastly complicated in past implementations and makes it simple again. All I had to do was install subversion, grab a GUI client, and I was off and running. I really like how it is smart enough to know what I change in my working copy automatically so I don't have to expressly check things out or add new files before I start editing.

Of course, if you are a cvs expert and have been using it for years, I'm sure it's just as easy to keep using it--I don't hink svn is so amazing that everyone needs to go out and switch right now. But I was pretty pleased.

Posted in Tech Stuff

4 Comments

  1. Cyrus Says:
    February 20th, 2005 at 04:53 AM Well, I've had a lot of issues with subversion so far. I know Jeff's sold on it, but I always end up with "DB corruption" errors at the most embarising times possible (when shoing svn to other Ph.Ds for example). It seems to work fine for a single user, but falls down flat with multiple people. The Mantis (mantis.cs.colorado.edu) repository is constantly giving errors, frustrating to say the least.
  2. al Says:
    February 20th, 2005 at 01:32 PM is what we use at NI. and um. its not THAT bad, but it certainly leaves a lot to be desired. some of the simplest concepts are very chore like. that and its about slow as butt sometimes.
  3. Yo' Mama Says:
    February 26th, 2005 at 04:48 PM The database corruption stuff is annoying, and its actually a problem with locking of the berkeleyDB database that subversion uses by default. Lots of other people hated it too though, so now they have the option --fs-type so you can specify what type of repository (I think "filestore"?) you want. svnadmin create --fs-type fsfs /home/yomama/repos All is good, yes!
  4. Yo' Mama Says:
    February 26th, 2005 at 04:49 PM I don't like how it formatted my last comment. The svnadmin line should be on another line... Can I use html here?

    svnadmin create --fs-type fsfs /home/yomama/repos

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