[AccessD] version control

Which one do you use?

Arthur Fuller wrote:
> Subversion is free and VSS is free too if you have already purchased Office
> Developer or Visual Studio etc. If you have either of those, then you
> already have VSS. If you're going the open-source route, then Google
> Subversion and you'll get a download hit quickly enough.
> 
> Next thing is to decide where to place the version-control files. They are
> going to take a lot of space, no doubt about that. As I mentioned, I have
> since moved from thinking of these tools as source-code repositories to
> document-repositories (meaning that I want each draft of my next article for
> Red Gate and each instance of my various Access and Ruby apps) available at
> all times from anywhere in civilization (e.g. internet).
> 
> The company for which I worked that opened my eyes to VSS is called
> Accenture, and it's a big outfit. Thousands of employees all over the world.
> Everything is stored in a VSS database in Chicago, if memory serves. The
> physical location doesn't matter; only the access (to coin a phrase) does.
> 
> Suppose that you don't have all that available space, and you're a humble
> SOHO with a couple of notebooks and a desktop or two and maybe a server.
> Ensure that the server (or pretend-server, as economics dictate) has Lots of
> space. That's square zero. Then start "recording" or "installing" all your
> versions of product/document xyz123 into the VC (generic appelation for
> Version Control) database. File everything -- Word docs, Access MDBs,
> backups of your SQL dbs, PPT slideshows... everything.
> 
> We could spend days discussing which hierarchy you prefer, and I surrender
> immediately: yours is correct. If it works for you, that's all that's
> important. I am not here to profess some better way. Do what you will.
> However, what you must do is declare a home base for said VC database, and
> make copies of same frequently and take them offsite so you are covered even
> in the event of a NewOrleans storm. You must do that. So...
> 
> You have one old tired box that has lots of storage and few brains. That's
> your storage baby.  Everybody should point to him for the latest rev. of any
> document or project. That's your main squeeze. That baby is best protected
> very well, with RAID or offsite or whatever, but that baby is your baby.
> 
> Now we plug in remotely from some hotel in someplace and first thing we do
> is install the latest version, not trusting our little memory stick to
> actually contain the latest version. Every hour or so, while working in said
> remote loc, we update the VC database.
> 
> This is not rocket science. It's quite trivial once you set up the system to
> behave this way. You check something out, you work on it for a while, then
> you check it back in. You made a few nightmarish changes that were
> particularly ill-considered, you chuck them aside and request this morning's
> version, before you got that brain-addled idea. It's simple.
> 
> Takes you about an hour to set up, and then you can be as addled as I, and
> without risking major income problems.
> 
> This is not complicated. I think that I have outlined the basic steps. It
> does depend upon a box with a large amount of available storage. That is for
> certain. Right-click My Documents then select Properties and see what's
> there. In my case I do not store apps under My Documents, so I have an
> additional directory or three to deal with, but it's not that complicated.
> Shove it all into the VC system of your choice and that's that. And then,
> anytime you want to undo yesterday's mistakes, it's easy!
> 
> On Sat, Apr 19, 2008 at 12:16 PM, William Hindman <
> wdhindman at dejpolsystems.com> wrote:
> 
>> ...me too!
>>
>> William
>>

-- 
John W. Colby
www.ColbyConsulting.com