Version Control and how it will save your life

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Version Controland how it will save your life

• 10-minute crash-course into the benefits of
• source code management

Craig Mason Stasis Media CraigMason.co.uk /
StasisMedia.com
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Scope of this picnic talk

• A quick explanation and demonstration of source
  control and its benefits for the complete
  beginner and amateur.
• What problems source control can help to resolve
  for the individual and the business
• Overview of the different VC software available

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What is version control?

• Managing the history and changes of a set of
  files
• Collaborating on a set of documents with a common
  document store
• Branching and merging of ideas in separate
  lines of development
• Get out of jail FREE card

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Quick example of the problem
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Conflict (
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Solutions?

• Just download the files first!
• Never happens
• Keep backup folders (2009-04-24_site-version-1)?
• Quickly gets messy
• Doesnt allow for small experiments
• Hard to synchronise
• Only allow one person to work on the files?
• Not practical

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Version Control!

• Individual
• Keep a log of all changes you have made
• Tag specific points in history (think
  releases)
• Branch the trunk to experiment with ideas
• Easily revert to any point in time
• Synchronise between different machines

• Team
• As individual plus
• Allow multiple developers to work on the same
  project
• See where conflicts arise and easily rectify them
• Never overwrite anybody elses code!
• Blame the people who break things ?

Thanks to http//www.slideshare.net/phpcodemonkey
/introduction-to-version-control-presentation
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Example using Bazaar
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• Using Olive branch manager to view the
  difference since last commit comes with bzr
  package on Ubuntu

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History viewer
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Other important features

• Branching the project
• Allows us to work on an experimental set of
  features whilst not disrupting the main line,
  or trunk of development.
• Collaboration
• Multiple developers working on the same project,
  or branches
• Release control
• A working version can be tagged and released to
  production. If theres a problem, we can quickly
  rollback to the previous version or tag.

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Types of Version Control software

• Subversion (SVN)
• Been around since 2000 as a competitor to CVS.
• Centralised and needs a server to work properly
• Widely supported by many applications and
  companies
• Widely used GUI (TortoiseSVN)
• Bazaar (Bzr)
• Developed by Canonical (Ubuntu developers)
• Decentralised
• Works on Windows, Linux and Mac
• GUI available for Linux Windows

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• Git
• Very similar to Bazaar
• Used by developers of Linux kernel, Perl, GNOME,
  Samba, VLC, Ruby on Rails
• No native Windows build
• I will probably be moving to Git full-time

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Centralised
Source http//betterexplained.com/articles/intro-
to-distributed-version-control-illustrated/
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Distributed
Source http//betterexplained.com/articles/intro-
to-distributed-version-control-illustrated/
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Not just for code!
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Version Control for designers!

• Visual diff uses external tool, BeyondCompare
• Same tool is also very useful for 3-way merging
• http//www.scootersoftware.com/shop.php
• Use code bamboojuice for 20 discount
• (Has helped save my life)

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Resources

• Slides based on a presentation by my good friend
  Mark Sailes
• http//www.svn-checkout.co.uk
• Reading
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Version_control
• http//betterexplained.com/articles/a-visual-guide
  -to-version-control/
• http//betterexplained.com/articles/intro-to-distr
  ibuted-version-control-illustrated/
• Software
• http//subversion.tigris.org/
• http//git-scm.com/
• http//bazaar-vcs.org/

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Thank you!

• Craig.Mason_at_StasisMedia.com
• http//www.StasisMedia.com