Getting started with Version Control

Question

I need to implement version control, even for just the developing I do at home. I have read about how great Subversion is for the past couple years and was about to dedicat

Answer 1

For a friendly explanation of most of the basic concepts, see A Visual Guide to Version Control. The article is very SVN-friendly.

Answer 2

Start using SVN for your actual work, but try to make time for fiddling around with Git and/or Mercurial. SVN is reasonably stable for production, but eventually you'll face a scenario where you'll need a distributed SCM, by which time you'll be properly armed and the new systems will be mature enough.

Answer 3

I would definitely choose SVN over CVS, if only because people who learned source control using CVS, tend to use "svn delete" then "svn add" instead of "svn move". Which makes it harder to find all of the previous revisions of a specific file. And you can always upgrade to using git-svn. I personally think it is easier to learn than hg, but really the main reason to use SVN is it has largely become the de-facto version control system of Open Source Software.

If you ever plan on learning / using D it is almost mandatory to access the third party repositories, like DSource.

Answer 4

Don't wait. Pick one, and go with it. All systems will have their pluses and minuses. Your power could go out, you computer gets stolen, or you forget to undo a major change and all your code gets fried while you're waiting to see who emerges victorious.

Answer 5

When I decided I must use a code versioning system, I looked around for any good tutorials on how to get started but didn't find any that could help me.

So I simplely installed the SVN Server and Tortoise SVN for the client and dived into the deepend and i learn't how to use it along the way.

Answer 6

If on a windows box a quick and dirty slution is CVSNT. Easy to use just set it up and works very well.

I myself prefer SVN but this is a good one for quick use.