CVS baby steps

sneakyimp

OK so I am now showing my noobness here. I used to use CVS years ago when I was in college writing code for my operating systems class but I've been coding independently for years and I have no contemporary experience with a version control system.

Also, the project I'm working on (see signature) is just me at this point. So my questions are:

1) I'm currently the only developer. Do I really need CVS?

2) Can anyone recommend a good CVS system? I've read that things like this exist at google code and sourceforge and so on but haven't gotten far enough to publish there yet.

Kudose

I believe the successor to CVS is SVN. I am sure laserlight will say Bazaar is better though. 🙂

To be honest, I tried to setup SVN but it was a pain in the arse and I could get it working, just not over HTTP.

I think a version control system is good for anything that uses version numbers.

Elizabeth

I would also recommend SVN instead of CVS. If you're on Windoze you can easily fire up TortoiseSVN and life is good.

Then there's also been talk of Git as a new-ish version control alternative. I've only just looked at it so I can't speak from experience as to what makes it better than SVN. Just one more thing to learn, in my opinion... (geez I can't keep up!) but you might give it a try.

laserlight

1) I'm currently the only developer. Do I really need CVS?

From my limited experience, and those of my friends who do not use version control, version control does come in very handy even for one-person projects. One reason is that it provides a safety net for you to go back to a working version should you make some changes that did not turn out as expected. Note that CVS refers to a particular version control system, hence we have Kudose and Elizabeth suggesting Subversion instead 🙂

2) Can anyone recommend a good CVS system? I've read that things like this exist at google code and sourceforge and so on but haven't gotten far enough to publish there yet.

You could just get an account, set things up, and then worry about properly publishing later. After all, by the time you realise you need version control, it may be too late, so you might as well get started now then use the other features provided later. Of course, you do not have to use Sourceforge and such...

I am sure laserlight will say Bazaar is better though.

... since you can setup a Bazaar branch on your home computer, work with version control all you want, then publish it to a website of your choice as and when you choose, even if the web server does not have Bazaar installed. That said, you can have a local Subversion repository too, just that publishing it may not be so easy. (Of course you do not have to publish it if you never intend to work with other developers, but that could be very shortsighted).

Launchpad has direct support for Bazaar as a VCS.

Then there's also been talk of Git as a new-ish version control alternative. I've only just looked at it so I can't speak from experience as to what makes it better than SVN.

Git, like Bazaar and Mercurial, is a distributed version control system. I found Bazaar when I wanted to be able to have a Subversion repository on my computer and also on a website. It later came in handy when I wanted to have full access to version control offline and keep in sync with my home computer, laptop and occasionally my school computer. Other than that I think that Subversion is fine for a lone developer or a team using the company network, particularly with its more mature tool support than any of Bazaar, Git and Mercurial.

piersk

What's the difference between a distributed version control system and something like SVN? I know that SVN only has one repository, but how do the distributed ones match up?

laserlight

What's the difference between a distributed version control system and something like SVN?

In a distributed version control system, everyone has commit rights to his or her own repository (or branch, depending on what terms are in use), so they have full access to version control if they are offline or even if they have no commit rights to the trunk.

I know that SVN only has one repository, but how do the distributed ones match up?

The developers typically anoint one online repository as the trunk. Only the core developers would have write access to that, but there would be ways for contributors to send patches with version information to the developers to merge into the trunk.

dougal85

One thing I love about say SVN is the ability to log in remotely and get your code. You can work from anywhere with the Internet. or you don't need to worry about synching different computers.

I've not used it for that long and I've barely tried CVS. I've only used SVN ... but I think its great. It's so useful.

Just make sure you back up SVN if its going to have all your code!

Oh yeah, Eclipse and IDE's that extend the eclipse platform (the new Zend and Aptana) all have CVS and SVN support. I'm not sure about others...

NogDog

dougal85 wrote:
...Oh yeah, Eclipse and IDE's that extend the eclipse platform (the new Zend and Aptana) all have CVS and SVN support. I'm not sure about others...

PHPDesigner has built-in support for SVN, though I had to download TortoiseSVN separately (a totally painless install, though: I didn't have to do anything to integrate it, just install it, and then PHPDesigner recognized it was there).

laserlight

dougal85 wrote:
One thing I love about say SVN is the ability to log in remotely and get your code. You can work from anywhere with the Internet. or you don't need to worry about synching different computers.

All version control systems can do that, from CVS to darcs. There's nothing special about Subversion in that respect. Bazaar, git and Mercurial just make this easier by not requiring you to setup version control software on the server. That said, I am not sure about the other two, but installing Bazaar on the server and using bzr+ssh instead of sftp makes for a more pleasant experience where speed is concerned.