[dba-VB] Subversion, TortoiseSVN and VisualSVN

Hello John,

I have occasionally found today a good article on (distributed) version
control systems - it points on the main issues with Subversion, which I did
also experienced (especially that "Subversion fails to merge changes when
files or directories are renamed" ) and which forced me to not use
Subversion broadly. Have a look:

Distributed Version Control Systems: A Not-So-Quick Guide Through

http://www.infoq.com/articles/dvcs-guide 

<<<
Or a more precise question: Why Central VCS (and notably Subversion) are not
satisfying? 
Several things are blamed on Subversion:

Major reason is that branching is easy but merging is a pain (but one
doesn't go without the other). And it's likely that any consequent project
you'll work on will need easy gymnastic with splits, dev, test branches.
Subversion has no History-aware merge capability, forcing its users to
manually track exactly which revisions have been merged between branches
making it error-prone. 
No way to push changes to another user (without submitting to the Central
Server). 
Subversion fails to merge changes when files or directories are renamed. 
The trunk/tags/branches convention can be considered misleading. 
Offline commits are not possible. 
.svn files pollute your local directories. 
svn:external can be harmful to handle. 
Performance 
 
The modern DVCS fixed those issues with both their own implementation tricks
and from the fact that they were distributed. But as we will see in
conclusion, Subversion did not resign yet. 
>>>

Bazaar seems to be one of the best free open source options for modern
DVCSs...

--
Shamil

-----Original Message-----
From: dba-vb-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:dba-vb-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of jwcolby
Sent: Friday, April 25, 2008 8:31 PM
To: VBA
Subject: [dba-VB] Subversion, TortoiseSVN and VisualSVN

OK, I have been badgered and goaded into coming into the 21st century. 
Not to mention I can't figure out how to safely and effectively share 
development of my .Net programs on all of my machines.

So I am trying to get Subversion installed and functioning.  So of 
course I come here seeking advice or to start a user group (goad and 
prod you guys) if no one is using this thing.

I installed VisualSVN and it told me I had to install TortoiseSVN to get 
full functionality.  It implied that it would install Subversion as 
well.  The install did not ask any "install" questions such as where do 
you want the database to go etc.

My intention is to place the Subversion database on one of my servers, 
share the directory, then place the various clients (TortoiseSVN and 
VisualSVN on each machine which I develop on.

So my first question, is anyone out there using this thing?  Is anyone 
interested in using this and sharing the pain of figuring it out?

-- 
John W. Colby
www.ColbyConsulting.com
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