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  3. Switch from Source Safe to Subversion?

Switch from Source Safe to Subversion?

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  • P peterchen

    No help with your problem - btu the biggest problem I have with a switch is that people actually insist on keeping the exclusive checkout. I don't know what to make of that.


    We are a big screwed up dysfunctional psychotic happy family - some more screwed up, others more happy, but everybody's psychotic joint venture definition of CP
    My first real C# project | Linkify!|FoldWithUs! | sighist

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    S Offline
    Stuart Dootson
    wrote on last edited by
    #17

    peterchen wrote:

    exclusive checkout

    We do the whole exclusive checkout/checkin thing where I work - but it's a safety critical project where there's only meant to be one person working on a particular bit of code at any one time anyway, so it matches our workflow. We don't use Subversion (or Sourcesafe, I hasten to add!!) either, but that's a whole other story.

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    • C Christopher Duncan

      The last project I worked on required me to install and use Subversion / Tortoise, which from a user's point of view was relatively painless. I've been using Source Safe at home for all of my personal projects since the early 90s. At this point, I'm wondering if it's worthwhile to move everything switch over to Subversion. If I make the switch, I suspect I can kiss my revision history in Source Safe goodbye as I doubt that there's a way to port it to Subversion. However, I'm also wondering how easy it is to use from an administrative point of view (configuration, creating projects, etc.) rather than just checking stuff in and out. Although I've never completely trusted the database stability, for single user projects Source Safe is drop dead simple to use. Thoughts, anyone?

      Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com

      S Offline
      S Offline
      Stuart Dootson
      wrote on last edited by
      #18

      Christopher Duncan wrote:

      However, I'm also wondering how easy it is to use from an administrative point of view (configuration, creating projects, etc.) rather than just checking stuff in and out.

      Dead easy - the hardest configuration is using SVN through Apache - and even that's pretty much painless. I set up SVN and Trac (SCM and problem reporting) on a Win XP both in about 1-2hours - that includes download and install of Apache, SVN, Trac and all their dependencies. I've been playing with Git[^] a bit as well - it's allegedly the best distributed VCS at the moment - despite its obvious Unix bias (its primary developer was Linus Torvalds, after all), the Windows version seems to work adequately and was painless to install. You don't even need to use MinGW sh, despite the fact that they imply you do.

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      • P Pete OHanlon

        Do it. You won't look back. The fact that your source control database doesn't get corrupted more than makes up for a little bit of lost revision history.

        Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.

        P Offline
        P Offline
        Pawel Krakowiak
        wrote on last edited by
        #19

        This is funny because I actually switched to Source Safe from Subversion earlier this year. I have used Subversion for multiple projects over the last 3 years at two companies. I actually led a project to implement Subversion as the source control solution for a multinational financial institution's Polish branch. But we were coding in Delphi, SQL Server, some PHP, but very little .NET back then. And RPG on iSeries (though not me) - Subversion also works for that, there's a plugin for Eclipse called Subclipse. Then a few months ago I started my own business and moved to .NET world which interested me, so I started using Visual Studio. Subversion had nice integration with Windows shell, but it couldn't be embedded in my developer IDE... And Visual Source Safe had that feature. It was easier, I could just click in the Solution Explorer and check-out/check-in single or multiple files and do other source control stuff. So I uninstalled SVN, backed up my repos and sticked with Source Safe ever since. I think it's a matter of one's needs. If you are using Microsoft tools exclusively - I would go for Source Safe (Or SourceGear? :) It's free for 1 dev). If you, however, use non-Microsoft tools, Subversion is a better choice - it won't integrate, but neither will Source Safe (usually). These are my two cents. And, by the way, anyone knows of a way to integrate Subversion with Visual Studio? Perhaps I'm just ignorant and don't know of it - if there was a way to fully integrate SVN I might take a second look at it. Ah, another thing I don't like about SVN is Apache. ;P I am using IIS for all my web projects (ASP.NET, even PHP) and don't want to run another HTTP server just for the sake of SVN. I remember it was also difficult to estabilish Active Directory based authentication and the auth rules (as described in SVN ebook) make you store usernames and passwords in a plain text file. :| Regards, Pawel Krakowiak

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        • P Pawel Krakowiak

          This is funny because I actually switched to Source Safe from Subversion earlier this year. I have used Subversion for multiple projects over the last 3 years at two companies. I actually led a project to implement Subversion as the source control solution for a multinational financial institution's Polish branch. But we were coding in Delphi, SQL Server, some PHP, but very little .NET back then. And RPG on iSeries (though not me) - Subversion also works for that, there's a plugin for Eclipse called Subclipse. Then a few months ago I started my own business and moved to .NET world which interested me, so I started using Visual Studio. Subversion had nice integration with Windows shell, but it couldn't be embedded in my developer IDE... And Visual Source Safe had that feature. It was easier, I could just click in the Solution Explorer and check-out/check-in single or multiple files and do other source control stuff. So I uninstalled SVN, backed up my repos and sticked with Source Safe ever since. I think it's a matter of one's needs. If you are using Microsoft tools exclusively - I would go for Source Safe (Or SourceGear? :) It's free for 1 dev). If you, however, use non-Microsoft tools, Subversion is a better choice - it won't integrate, but neither will Source Safe (usually). These are my two cents. And, by the way, anyone knows of a way to integrate Subversion with Visual Studio? Perhaps I'm just ignorant and don't know of it - if there was a way to fully integrate SVN I might take a second look at it. Ah, another thing I don't like about SVN is Apache. ;P I am using IIS for all my web projects (ASP.NET, even PHP) and don't want to run another HTTP server just for the sake of SVN. I remember it was also difficult to estabilish Active Directory based authentication and the auth rules (as described in SVN ebook) make you store usernames and passwords in a plain text file. :| Regards, Pawel Krakowiak

          P Offline
          P Offline
          Pete OHanlon
          wrote on last edited by
          #20

          For me, the issue is more to do with the reliability of the source database and the ease of managing multiple developers on single projects. It's merge control is far superior to VSS. Oh well.

          Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.

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          • P peterchen

            No help with your problem - btu the biggest problem I have with a switch is that people actually insist on keeping the exclusive checkout. I don't know what to make of that.


            We are a big screwed up dysfunctional psychotic happy family - some more screwed up, others more happy, but everybody's psychotic joint venture definition of CP
            My first real C# project | Linkify!|FoldWithUs! | sighist

            E Offline
            E Offline
            e prost
            wrote on last edited by
            #21

            Though I never used locks myself with svn (no need), you may enforce locks. From svn-book (at the end of "The Copy-Modify-Merge Solution" chapter) : "When Locking is Necessary ... While Subversion is still primarily a copy-modify-merge system, it still recognizes the need to lock an occasional file and thus provide mechanisms for this. This feature is discussed later in this book, in the section called “Locking”." Moreover : - you can use hook scripts on the subversion server in order to customize processing; - you can use a property named svn:needs-lock (property = meta-data attached to versionned objects) in order to ease work. More info on that subject : - http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.4/svn-book.html#svn.advanced.locking - http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.4/svn-book.html#svn.basic.vsn-models.lock-unlock - http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.4/svn-book.html#svn.basic.vsn-models.copy-merge

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            • P Pete OHanlon

              For me, the issue is more to do with the reliability of the source database and the ease of managing multiple developers on single projects. It's merge control is far superior to VSS. Oh well.

              Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.

              P Offline
              P Offline
              Pawel Krakowiak
              wrote on last edited by
              #22

              It's merge control is far superior to VSS. Yes, it is. I agree. The diff tool in VSS sucks, honestly.

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              • P Pawel Krakowiak

                This is funny because I actually switched to Source Safe from Subversion earlier this year. I have used Subversion for multiple projects over the last 3 years at two companies. I actually led a project to implement Subversion as the source control solution for a multinational financial institution's Polish branch. But we were coding in Delphi, SQL Server, some PHP, but very little .NET back then. And RPG on iSeries (though not me) - Subversion also works for that, there's a plugin for Eclipse called Subclipse. Then a few months ago I started my own business and moved to .NET world which interested me, so I started using Visual Studio. Subversion had nice integration with Windows shell, but it couldn't be embedded in my developer IDE... And Visual Source Safe had that feature. It was easier, I could just click in the Solution Explorer and check-out/check-in single or multiple files and do other source control stuff. So I uninstalled SVN, backed up my repos and sticked with Source Safe ever since. I think it's a matter of one's needs. If you are using Microsoft tools exclusively - I would go for Source Safe (Or SourceGear? :) It's free for 1 dev). If you, however, use non-Microsoft tools, Subversion is a better choice - it won't integrate, but neither will Source Safe (usually). These are my two cents. And, by the way, anyone knows of a way to integrate Subversion with Visual Studio? Perhaps I'm just ignorant and don't know of it - if there was a way to fully integrate SVN I might take a second look at it. Ah, another thing I don't like about SVN is Apache. ;P I am using IIS for all my web projects (ASP.NET, even PHP) and don't want to run another HTTP server just for the sake of SVN. I remember it was also difficult to estabilish Active Directory based authentication and the auth rules (as described in SVN ebook) make you store usernames and passwords in a plain text file. :| Regards, Pawel Krakowiak

                D Offline
                D Offline
                Darren M Jackson
                wrote on last edited by
                #23

                There are a number of tools to integrate Subversion with Visual Studio; some free, some commercial. Details on this thread[^].

                It's turtles all the way down.

                D 1 Reply Last reply
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                • P Pawel Krakowiak

                  This is funny because I actually switched to Source Safe from Subversion earlier this year. I have used Subversion for multiple projects over the last 3 years at two companies. I actually led a project to implement Subversion as the source control solution for a multinational financial institution's Polish branch. But we were coding in Delphi, SQL Server, some PHP, but very little .NET back then. And RPG on iSeries (though not me) - Subversion also works for that, there's a plugin for Eclipse called Subclipse. Then a few months ago I started my own business and moved to .NET world which interested me, so I started using Visual Studio. Subversion had nice integration with Windows shell, but it couldn't be embedded in my developer IDE... And Visual Source Safe had that feature. It was easier, I could just click in the Solution Explorer and check-out/check-in single or multiple files and do other source control stuff. So I uninstalled SVN, backed up my repos and sticked with Source Safe ever since. I think it's a matter of one's needs. If you are using Microsoft tools exclusively - I would go for Source Safe (Or SourceGear? :) It's free for 1 dev). If you, however, use non-Microsoft tools, Subversion is a better choice - it won't integrate, but neither will Source Safe (usually). These are my two cents. And, by the way, anyone knows of a way to integrate Subversion with Visual Studio? Perhaps I'm just ignorant and don't know of it - if there was a way to fully integrate SVN I might take a second look at it. Ah, another thing I don't like about SVN is Apache. ;P I am using IIS for all my web projects (ASP.NET, even PHP) and don't want to run another HTTP server just for the sake of SVN. I remember it was also difficult to estabilish Active Directory based authentication and the auth rules (as described in SVN ebook) make you store usernames and passwords in a plain text file. :| Regards, Pawel Krakowiak

                  R Offline
                  R Offline
                  Rocky Moore
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #24

                  I have used Source Safe for about 7-10 years, just keep upgrading and have had no problems. For my use it is usually single developer usage or two at the most so it does not get hammered some software houses might. One place I worked at back in the 2000-2003 times, we used Source Safe and Source Offsite for remote work. Had no problems..

                  Rocky <>< Blog Post: Windows Live Authentication - Easy Stuff! Tech Blog Post: Vista ReadyBoost! Tech Sites: SilverlightCity.com ~ TheSilverlightDirectory.com ~ TheWPFDirectory.com

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                  • D Darren M Jackson

                    There are a number of tools to integrate Subversion with Visual Studio; some free, some commercial. Details on this thread[^].

                    It's turtles all the way down.

                    D Offline
                    D Offline
                    Dan Neely
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #25

                    Darren M Jackson wrote:

                    t's turtles all the way down.

                    Classic. :)

                    -- If you view money as inherently evil, I view it as my duty to assist in making you more virtuous.

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                    • P Pete OHanlon

                      Do it. You won't look back. The fact that your source control database doesn't get corrupted more than makes up for a little bit of lost revision history.

                      Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.

                      E Offline
                      E Offline
                      Erik Midtskogen
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #26

                      When I'm forced to use VSS, I always create a scheduled task to back up the database each night so that I don't lose more than a day of work. I was always amazed at how buggy VSS is and always has been. It really is one of the most half-baked of all of Microsoft's products--and that's from a pretty crowded lineup of half-baked products. That from a company sitting on $40-$50B in cash. Amazing.

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                      • P Pawel Krakowiak

                        This is funny because I actually switched to Source Safe from Subversion earlier this year. I have used Subversion for multiple projects over the last 3 years at two companies. I actually led a project to implement Subversion as the source control solution for a multinational financial institution's Polish branch. But we were coding in Delphi, SQL Server, some PHP, but very little .NET back then. And RPG on iSeries (though not me) - Subversion also works for that, there's a plugin for Eclipse called Subclipse. Then a few months ago I started my own business and moved to .NET world which interested me, so I started using Visual Studio. Subversion had nice integration with Windows shell, but it couldn't be embedded in my developer IDE... And Visual Source Safe had that feature. It was easier, I could just click in the Solution Explorer and check-out/check-in single or multiple files and do other source control stuff. So I uninstalled SVN, backed up my repos and sticked with Source Safe ever since. I think it's a matter of one's needs. If you are using Microsoft tools exclusively - I would go for Source Safe (Or SourceGear? :) It's free for 1 dev). If you, however, use non-Microsoft tools, Subversion is a better choice - it won't integrate, but neither will Source Safe (usually). These are my two cents. And, by the way, anyone knows of a way to integrate Subversion with Visual Studio? Perhaps I'm just ignorant and don't know of it - if there was a way to fully integrate SVN I might take a second look at it. Ah, another thing I don't like about SVN is Apache. ;P I am using IIS for all my web projects (ASP.NET, even PHP) and don't want to run another HTTP server just for the sake of SVN. I remember it was also difficult to estabilish Active Directory based authentication and the auth rules (as described in SVN ebook) make you store usernames and passwords in a plain text file. :| Regards, Pawel Krakowiak

                        G Offline
                        G Offline
                        Ghislain Hivon
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #27

                        The list of plug-in I found for Visual Studio I only test them for a short time, because I prefer not the integreted way. I use TortoiseSvn all the time. AnkhSVN, Open Source http://ankhsvn.tigris.org/ PushOK SVN SCC, Look exactly like SourceSafe in Visual Studio http://www.pushok.com/soft\_svn.php VisualSVN, Use TortoiseSVN to communicate with Subversion, maybe a little friendlier than AnkhSVN but cost more than 50$ http://www.visualsvn.com/ -- modified at 9:32 Wednesday 12th September, 2007

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                        • S si618

                          El Corazon wrote:

                          scratch box is where you can play with ideas before submission to a full-out source control. I actually use multiple subversion systems, my scratchboard has non-working revisions included, where-as the company one requires "expected" working versons uploaded. Sometimes you break the company build with a change, but not often.

                          Ummm, isn't that called a branch?

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                          E Offline
                          El Corazon
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #28

                          si618 wrote:

                          Ummm, isn't that called a branch?

                          If it is held on the same server, yes. We're talking two different servers, with one server being a local database and the client tool simply serves it to itself. :-D

                          _________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)

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                          • E El Corazon

                            Christopher Duncan wrote:

                            Okay, you completely lost me on this one.

                            scratch box is where you can play with ideas before submission to a full-out source control. I actually use multiple subversion systems, my scratchboard has non-working revisions included, where-as the company one requires "expected" working versons uploaded. Sometimes you break the company build with a change, but not often. when you run multiple revision control systems on the same code, a local database, one not on a network server is called a scratch box.... not sure where the term comes from, but used it for many years.... maybe I even accidentally coined it and forgot about it. Maybe from practicing calligraphy in the sand.... I do calligraphy too. :doh:

                            _________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)

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                            K Offline
                            K Thompson
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #29

                            Sounds similar to a sandbox environment. (Sandbox also being a place where cats do their business :) )

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                            • K K Thompson

                              Sounds similar to a sandbox environment. (Sandbox also being a place where cats do their business :) )

                              E Offline
                              E Offline
                              El Corazon
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #30

                              K..Thompson wrote:

                              (Sandbox also being a place where cats do their business

                              is there any term used that will not relate to cats and certain behaviors? :laugh:

                              _________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)

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                              • C Christopher Duncan

                                The last project I worked on required me to install and use Subversion / Tortoise, which from a user's point of view was relatively painless. I've been using Source Safe at home for all of my personal projects since the early 90s. At this point, I'm wondering if it's worthwhile to move everything switch over to Subversion. If I make the switch, I suspect I can kiss my revision history in Source Safe goodbye as I doubt that there's a way to port it to Subversion. However, I'm also wondering how easy it is to use from an administrative point of view (configuration, creating projects, etc.) rather than just checking stuff in and out. Although I've never completely trusted the database stability, for single user projects Source Safe is drop dead simple to use. Thoughts, anyone?

                                Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com

                                M Offline
                                M Offline
                                MrPlankton
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #31

                                Just curious, but why is the discussion just subversion/vss? Why is foundation server not even considered? I am a vss user and have considered subversion, but wonder why programmers and project teams don't seem to consider foundation server. What are the issues about foundation server? Thanks.

                                MrPlankton

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                                0
                                • C Christopher Duncan

                                  The last project I worked on required me to install and use Subversion / Tortoise, which from a user's point of view was relatively painless. I've been using Source Safe at home for all of my personal projects since the early 90s. At this point, I'm wondering if it's worthwhile to move everything switch over to Subversion. If I make the switch, I suspect I can kiss my revision history in Source Safe goodbye as I doubt that there's a way to port it to Subversion. However, I'm also wondering how easy it is to use from an administrative point of view (configuration, creating projects, etc.) rather than just checking stuff in and out. Although I've never completely trusted the database stability, for single user projects Source Safe is drop dead simple to use. Thoughts, anyone?

                                  Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com

                                  C Offline
                                  C Offline
                                  cpkilekofp
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #32

                                  The biggest worry I have about source control systems is corruption of the archive database, which in my experience happens soon after one attempts a few branches. I've seen it happen twice in Visual Source Safe, and once in the OS/2 version of PVCS (or whatever it's named nowadays). These experiences were in multiuser environments, and I do not have sufficient experience with the use of branches in a single user environment to say this is a problem there as well...but it's the first thing I wonder about when I see someone using branches. Christopher P. Kile

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