Topic: State of play - Source Code Management / Revision Control software

[Glenn R]

I thought I would see what others are using. I'm currently using Tortoise SVN, but it has no ability to search a repository, so am looking for something else. I am currently giving Sourcegear Vault a serious look as it's free for single use, is .NET, does all things subversion does generally, will integrate into full Visual Studio (but not Express, which is what I'm using at the moment) and is backended by SQL Server Full/Express.

So:

1. Who's using revision control?
2. What are you using?
3. How is it working for you?
4. Gotchas / tips

Cheers,
Glenn.

[Draftek]

We use MKS Integrity which replaced Visual SourceSafe a few months ago.

Seems to be working fine except the overhead time to make minor changes is a little too much for me. I was used to working alone and didn't really have the need for a dedicated system. For instance yesterday I modified two lines of code that took 5 minutes but the total time for creating an incident, checking in and out took a few hours. I am new so that probably accounts for 80% of the time.

Creating new projects is also quite involved it appears.

MKS actually stores the code in an SQL database instead of mapping folders.

I would guess it was costly and mainly to be used in an Enterprise environment - we have 30+ developers.

[dgorsman]

Not using but looking into it.  I am going to have a second subordinate in another month or two and will likely need *something* to keep everybody from tripping over each other.  The big stumbling block right now is I don't (and likely never will) have full IT support for server access, SQL server set-up/admin, or other fancy development toys.  We're an EPCM not a software company so you can guess where the budget is oriented.

I might set up an SVN repository here at the Swamp and run TortiseSVN on our three stations but that will require IT and executive approval first.  I can always hope the change volume stays low and I can still get away with TortiseMerge.  Even by itself its helped quite a bit.

[sinc]

We use MKS Integrity which replaced Visual SourceSafe a few months ago.

Seems to be working fine except the overhead time to make minor changes is a little too much for me. I was used to working alone and didn't really have the need for a dedicated system. For instance yesterday I modified two lines of code that took 5 minutes but the total time for creating an incident, checking in and out took a few hours. I am new so that probably accounts for 80% of the time.

What took all the time?  I've never used Visual SourceSafe, and am not sure what "creating an incident" is, but in most SCCSs, the check-in/check-out process usually only takes seconds.

[jgr]

Sorry, I do not understand to mean. (Your question is about the system or the GUI?)

I've used only for download ('checkout'):

Subversion
http://subversion.apache.org/
GUI:
http://tortoisesvn.net/
http://www.visualsvn.com (Not free)


Concurrent Versions System (CVS)

http://savannah.nongnu.org/project/memberlist.php?detailed=1&group=cvs
GUI:
(for me works fine, last week i downloaded innosetup code)
www.tortoisecvs.org

Mercurial distributed revision control system
http://mercurial.selenic.com/
GUI:
http://tortoisehg.bitbucket.org/

Git
http://git-scm.com/
Command line tools (in my opinion its use is difficult):
http://code.google.com/p/msysgit/downloads/list?can=3

[CADbloke]

I'm using Mercurial & TortoiseHg with hosted repos in Kiln http://www.fogcreek.com/kiln/ tied to hosted Fogbugz  http://www.fogcreek.com/fogbugz/ - and loving it. Fogbugz + Kiln are free for 2 or less users. It's called the "Student and Startup Edition". See http://www.fogcreek.com/kiln/pricing.html. I'd gladly pay for it if I had to.

The Visual Studio add-on for TortoiseHg is at http://visualhg.codeplex.com/ and works well.

I even version-control things like my Visual Studio and Resharper settings to keep a few different computers set up the same way.

The biggest reason I love using Mercurial - I can break anything, any time and fix it with a couple of clicks. I can try any crazy idea. It if is uncomfortably crazy I create a branch. The distributed aspect of Mercurial & Git are handy for working any time, anywhere on any PC.

Windows tooling tends to be better for Mercurial than Git. TortoiseHg can work with Git Repos http://jamesmckay.net/tag/hg-git/ as well as SVN repos http://mercurial.selenic.com/wiki/HgSubversion which is mighty handy. I haven't used these widely so I can't vouch for their reliablilty. Do some homework on that one if that is the way you want to go. For the record, I have run TortoiseHg + TortoiseSVN + TortoiseGit on Win7 x64 with no issues.

Good resources for Mercurial are:
http://hginit.com/
http://tortoisehg.bitbucket.org/docs.html
http://kiln.stackexchange.com/  <-- Mercurial Q&A as well as Kiln Q&A
http://tekpub.com/codeplex  <-- a good video on using Mercurial
http://stackoverflow.com/  (of course)

[MP]

I've been using mercurial (tortoise front end). Can't really share any great insights or gotchas -- I'm using it version my own works, haven't done any forks etc. It's easy / great to use. Short post from blackberry is short.

[CADbloke]

I updated my post at http://www.theswamp.org/index.php?topic=32381.msg486114;all#msg486114 which has links (some of them from above) to various things Git and Mercurial, including hosted options and learning resources.

Personally, my current favourite if Kiln. It has a great search and you can also edit files and commit directly on the website. I use BitBucket as a backup.