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Re: New User Considering migrating from CVS to SVN

From: Paul Lussier <pll_at_lanminds.com>
Date: 2003-03-26 16:52:48 CET

In a message dated: Wed, 26 Mar 2003 10:19:25 +0100
"SteveKing" said:

>Also, the source code is well organized

And, IMO, more importantly, so is the documentation. I've never been
a big CVS user. I've tried on occasion, but always resorted to using
RCS for the simple needs I have. I read the CVS book here and there,
but I never found that it was very good at getting people started.
It seemed much more geared toward those who had already figured out
how use CVS, but now either wanted to become power users or needed to
be admins of a repo.

The Subversion docs on the other hand, are designed from the ground
up to *the* definitive guide (funny, I think that's the title too :)
of Subversion. The 3 authors have gone through pain-staking effort
to make this book usable and valuable to both the new svn user, the
veteran cvs user, admins of either, and (prospective) developers
who want to hack on the code.

CVS evolved over a long period of time, with many different hands
scratching various itches important to them at the time. Subversion
has a roadmap and plan. Both of which are being strictly adhered to
and executed daily, and only deviated from when it makes good sense
to do so, and there is a consensus of the development community.

Of all the Open Source development lists I've been on over the years,
this group of developers is the most professionally organized I think
I've seen. There is a general comraderie which has developed here
which has lead to a great team of people doing various tasks other
than sw development; there's the docs team, the patch manager, and the
release manager (did I miss anyone?).

In short, I don't think you can go wrong switching from CVS to
Subversion. However, remember that revision control is but a small
part of software development. There are a lot of revision control
systems out there, and most are adequate to perform that job. But
I've found over the years as a sysadmin, that the most important part
of any sw development effort is not the tools, but the policies and
practices established early, and strictly adhered to and enforced.

There is no single tool which is a silver bullet. The silver bullet
is in the policies and practices established by the organization.
Hopefully, you'll choose tools which will help enfoce these policies,
and this will make your life easier.

So, while I think Subversion is a great tool, if I were you, the
questions I'd be asking in addition to those you already have, are:

        How can Subversion help me enforce my existing practices and policies?
        How flexible and extensible are these mechanisms, are they customizable?

I hope that helps some what. Anyway, good luck!

Disclaimer:

        I am not a Subversion developer, nor am I affiliated with
        Tigris, CollabNet, or Red-Bean in any official or non-official
        way. I am a sysadmin who truly appreciates good software
        which makes my life easier, and I've come to greatly
        appreciate how easy, flexible, and immediately useful
        subversion has been (out of the box) for me, both personally
        and professionally.

(Okay, do I get the position of "Official Subversion Cheerleader" ? :)

-- 
Seeya,
Paul
--
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Received on Wed Mar 26 16:54:39 2003

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