RE: Re: Evaluating SVN as a Document Management Solution

>Subversion stores the delta between revisions, so the size does not
increase that much if you commit a new revision of a file

That is true to an extent. Also because you eliminate the need for more
traditional forms of version control (eg do a file copy each time you
release a document to a client) you can actually save space by using a
subversion repository.

The biggest downside is that lost space cannot easily be reclaimed, so you
need to make sure people don't do anything dumb like committing an 8gb disk
image or virtual PC image.

One thing I've noticed is that deltas are a lot bigger using MS Word 2007. A
word 2007 is essentially a zip file, which is full of xml documents, images
etc. A small change in the document can often end up being a large change in
the binary. I remember 1 weekend when we were working on a large document,
our repository grew by 5gb (see attached graph).

We use subversion both for source code and document management and it work
really well. I think what could work better would be a layer above
subversion to provide
* Management of meta data
* Management of partial checkouts
* Simplified HMI for non technical users

Daniel.