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by Brad Wilson.
Original Post: Martin: Use Subversion
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On the basis of my informal conversations with my colleagues, Subversion is a better [source control] system than all the commercial tools except Perforce. So if you're using something else, you may want to consider a switch.
He also points out a common complaint: lack of plugins. However, one of the nice things about Subversion is that it works on the edit-merge-commit model. This is different from SourceSafe, whose primary mode of operation is checkout-edit-checkin, designed to eliminate the merge issue by having a single explicit edit at any given time. (Of course, as it turns out, virtually everybody ends up running VSS in multiple-checkout mode, which makes is a terrible bastardization of the two: checkout-edit-merge-pray-checkin-scream-repeat).
The great thing about this model is that you really don't need a plugin for Visual Studio. Files are never read only. You edit them as you need, and you don't have to have a network connection. You only need to be connected to do the commit. Tortoise is a superb source control client, if you happen to be on Windows. The best part is that Subversion is generally run using HTTP as its transport, so it's highly internet friendly. Trying to use VSS from anywhere but a LAN is a recipe for disaster.
If you're stuck with VSS, you should consider spending a few hours of your time to investigate using Subversion. It's free, and well documented.
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