ActiveState Community

Version control for single developer

Posted by davea on 2009-11-07 05:02
OS: Windows XP Pro

Can anybody suggest a very simple version control system for a single developer working alone? I have used many in corporate environment environments for 20 years, but I am now working/playing alone with a notebook computer, and don't want or need the admin complexity, or processor overhead. I don't want a server that's always active. I just want the revisions to be reliably maintained and available.

Alternatively, is the API used by Komodo simple enough (and documented where?) that I could build my own such versioning system? I don't care much about efficiency, at least initially -- I presently use zip files of whole projects, and almost anything would be an improvement.

I'm using Komodo IDE 5.2, on Windows XP, mostly for Python development.

Thanks much.
DaveA

Git?
jeffg | Sat, 2009-11-07 13:08

I think something like Git would fit the bill, for a few reasons:

* the repository is local
* Git will hook up to things like svn if you need it to
* a *LOT* of people are using it, so there is no shortage of how-tos, etc:

http://book.git-scm.com/1_welcome_to_git.html
http://blog.xkoder.com/2008/08/13/git-tutorial-starting-with-git-using-j...

..etc.

I'm just starting to use it myself for a few things.

--
JeffG
http://www.openkomodo.com/blogs/jeffg

Thanks, I'll try it
davea | Mon, 2009-11-09 06:18

Thanks for the pointer. I've now read lots of their material, and it looks promising. One thing that seems confusing is the downloades page has both GIT and PORTABLEGIT. I don't see anywhere it describes the distinction, but I'm hoping it means the latter won't need much in the way of registry items (Windows) to run, but will find its data entirely in the repository.

Most of the writeup assumes Linux (and I guess the Linux developers use it for all or part of their work), so I don't find much about the Windows gotchas.

I like the underlying concepts -- build a few stable data types and transformations, and everything else rests on that. I also like the fact that until you compress, each different version of a file is actually contained in the repository as an independent file. The only thing tricky is finding which file.

Thanks.
DaveA

re: scc on windows
toddw | Mon, 2009-11-09 11:19

I actually would recommend Subversion (svn) for the following reasons:
* it's simple to use
* TortoiseSVN - probably the best GUI tool for revision control management
* better supported - there are a multitude of applications that support svn

Cheers,
Todd

re: scc on windows
davea | Mon, 2009-11-09 19:36

Thanks. At least SVN is supported in Komodo. But when I looked at it, it seemed to be a pain to install and administer, and I'd hate to have to fire up a server as well as a client just in order to check in a few files. Does the server have to be running all the time?

And my first/only exposure to svn was quite unpleasant (rather like my only exposure to paypal). After going through a whole signup process, it turned out I wasn't getting svn, I was just getting permission to use whatever svn I presumably already had, on the website. It was so confusing, it left me cold.

I'll look again; could you give me a correct website so at least I'm downloading the right stuff for local Windows usage?

Thanks for the suggestion.

re: server
toddw | Tue, 2009-11-10 09:02

You don't need a server if your just using svn locally, there are many tutorials on setting up svn locally, the jist of it is that you run "svnadmin create", example here:
http://www.guyrutenberg.com/2007/10/29/creating-local-svn-repository-hom...

then you checkout and work on your code on your local machine as well.

I suggest using the sliksvn bindings, as I've found them easier to download and install:
http://www.sliksvn.com/en/download

Cheers,
Todd

SVN links
michael.cartmell | Tue, 2009-11-10 00:06

Komodo IDE's integrated svn support requires the command line tools available from http://subversion.tigris.org/servlets/ProjectDocumentList?folderID=8100.

TortoiseSVN is available from http://tortoisesvn.net/downloads

SVN links
davea | Tue, 2009-11-10 05:06

Thanks for the links required to integrate SVN with Komodo.

This appears to be the link to download SVN itself:
http://www.collab.net/downloads/subversion/

Collabnet's website, however, has decided it doesn't like the account and password I set up, and refuses to do anything useful.

So unless I make up a new username and start over, I'm stymied. I haven't decided yet whether it's worth it.

SVN links
michael.cartmell | Tue, 2009-11-10 05:17

Do you need certified binaries from CollabNet? If not then you can download binaries from tigris.org compiled against either apache 2.0 or 2.2.

The parent of the earlier link I posted is http://subversion.tigris.org/getting.html#windows with links to the two set of binaries from tigris as well as the CollabNet set.