Want source control system; suggestion for a one developer, MS-centric shop?

[Guest]

I need source control to serve just one developer: me. Can someone suggest a
system that would suit my needs? I am the only person writing code, and I
manage the servers. Many of the SC solutions out there seem premised around
the needs of a large team and coordinating their work. That's not me.

Data points that might help: I'm on MSDN Universal. My environment is VS.NET
2005, multiple Windows 2003 Server boxes with replicated filesystems.
Ideally the system is easy to use and integrated with VS.NET's IDEs. Ideally
the system supports check in and check out of work I might do with my
laptops. Ideally the system is cheap or free. My primary interest in
source control is being able to revert to older, non-broken code if I need
to. Most of what I'm writing these days deals with either ASP.NET web
applications or Flash/Actionscript code and binaries.

As I've never coded in a professional shop and seen how other code warriors
work, it will help if you can presume very little knowledge on my part about
how these things go.

Thanks,
-KF

 

[Brendan Green]

Despite what people will tell you, Visual Source Safe would be fine for you.

I *think* you have a license for a copy with your MSDN subscription.

 

[Guest]

I need source control to serve just one developer: me. Can someone suggest a

system that would suit my needs?

Can you not use SourceSafe from your MSDN subscription?

If not then I think Subversion has a visual studio plugin
http://subversion.tigris.org/

 

[Walter Wang [MSFT]]

Hi,

Thank you for your post.

I also recommend that you use Visual SourceSafe since it's already included
in your MSDN subscription (included in Visual Studio). And we also have a
managed newsgroup for it: microsoft.public.vstudio.sourcesafe

Hope this helps. Please feel free to post here if anything is unclear.

Sincerely,
Walter Wang ([email protected], remove 'online.')
Microsoft Online Community Support

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[Guest]

Please tell me generally how a programmer uses VSS (2005?) in day-to-day
work. How is the interface represented in the VS.NET IDE (if at all?)? What
UI actions do you take to get at your previous instances and versions? How
do you designate a directory or directories to be source controlled?

Is it easy or difficult to back up the databases that VSS creates?

Thanks
-KF

 

[neilmcguigan]

also consider Subversion, a free and open source source-control
program.

check out hosted subversion at http://wush.net/subversion.php , they
host the subversion database for you, back it up, and it's $7/month

 

[Curious Trigger]

Hi,

I worked with VSS6.0 and I got along quite well with it.
But instead of hitting right away the sourcesafe newsgroup I would recommend
you first to practice the typical tasks you want to acomplish with VSS for a
couple of hours. It helped me a lot to get acquainted with check in, check
out, revisioning, labeling, getting code of a certain revision / label etc.

Then you can use VSS in your real project without coursing about your lack
of knowledge of source control.

Sincerly,
a curious sql-cursor

 

[Walter Wang [MSFT]]

Hi,

Thank you for your update.

Based on your requirements, I recommend you read following articles in
order (please note: these are only some recommended articles, you may still
need to refer to VSS help from time to time):

First, you need to get some idea what's VSS and the concept of Version
Control and History:

#Getting Started with Visual SourceSafe 6.0
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/guides/html
/vstskgetting_started.asp

#VSS: Version Control and History
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/guides/html
/vstskversion_control_and_history.asp

Then you need to learn how to setup a VSS database:

#Setting Up a VSS Database
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/guides/html
/vstskmaintain_the_user_list_basic_tasks.asp

Next, you need to learn how to create a VSS project:

#How to: Create a Visual SourceSafe Project
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8asz4157.aspx

And how to add, check out/in files:

#How to: Add Files to a Database
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/h1h3eyyk.aspx

#How to: Check Out a File or Project
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/wt3wf2yx.aspx

#How to: Check In Changes to an Item
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/3t23y7yt.aspx


At last, you may want to check out new features of VSS included in Visual
Studio 2005:

#What's New in Visual SourceSafe
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/th1ac915.aspx

Hope this helps. Please feel free to post here if anything is unclear.


Regards,
Walter Wang ([email protected], remove 'online.')
Microsoft Online Community Support

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[Mark Rae]

Please tell me generally how a programmer uses VSS (2005?) in day-to-day
work.

RTFM.

1) Install VSS

2) Open Visual Studio.NET

3) Create a new project and add some files to it

4) From the File menu, select Source Control and then add the project to
source control

How is the interface represented in the VS.NET IDE (if at all?)?

It is pretty much totally integrated into the VS.NET IDE. In Project
Explorer, right-click a file and observe all the new source control
options...

What UI actions do you take to get at your previous instances and
versions?

You open up VSS, select the project, select the file, then View History.

How do you designate a directory or directories to be source controlled?

You open up VSS, select a project, and then click Add Files (or something
similar)

Is it easy or difficult to back up the databases that VSS creates?

It's easy - you simply include the VSS folder structure in your backup
lists, same way as you would back up anything else.