Re: Source Code Control

Henrik [6650] wrote:
"toby" <toby@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> skrev i en meddelelse
news:1162909264.750932.91420@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[Snip lots of good comments about other systems]

As for VSS... the definitive summary is: "Visual SourceSafe? It would
be safer to print out all your code, run it through a shredder, and set
it on fire."
(via

http://jeremycoenen.com/blog/index.php/archive/subversion-just-plain-rocks/
)

I sit here wondering if all this Anti VSS propaganda out there is due to a
general disliking of Microsoft, or does anybody actually have any bad
experiences with Visual Sourcesafe? It seems that nobody (it is not only in
this newsgroup) has anything nice to say about the product, although no
specifics are listed. Just those "Print your code and set your hair on fire"
things.

I do not ask this to start a war over which is better or if Microsoft is
truly pure concentrated evil. I have had no say in the decision to use VSS
where i work and I cannot say that I love Microsoft or the way they do
business. But I have been using VSS for about 4 years and have never
experienced any kinds of trouble. I recently moved to the new version. Also
without any problems. But all this fuss about MSVSS makes me wonder what is
going on.... I would certainly not sleep very good at all if I knew about
major blow-up scenarios a la "VSS ate all my code and kicked my dog" or
things like that.

I have never used anything else but VSS, so I cannot say I have a lot of
experience, but I am always eager to learn and hear other opinions. So
please, friends, throw in your horror/success stories.

Thanking you all in advance.
Henrik


I haven't used VSS myself, but have read around the web for pros and cons of various source control systems (settling on ... wait for it ... subversion, although systems like Perforce might be better if your projects and budgets are large enough).

Perhaps one of the best web pages to look at to see the problems with VSS is Microsoft's own "Visual SourceSafe Best Practices" page:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnvss/html/vssbest.asp

When they recommend running an analysis tool every week to slowly comb through the repository and fix most of the broken links and other corruption, you know the system has major design flaws. They warn you not to run out of disk space, or you will trash you database - it's not exactly the graceful reduction in service you would expect from a server program low on resources.

There's also the dogfood argument - MS use (IIRC) a Perforce variant, and no one uses VSS inhouse. Subversion, OTOH, has been self-hosting since their earliest alpha versions.

Other weblinks include:
http://www.highprogrammer.com/alan/windev/sourcesafe.html
http://memeagora.blogspot.com/2005/01/friends-dont-let-friends-use-vss.html
http://www.developsense.com/testing/VSSDefects.html

I haven't found anything like those webpages regarding problems in other source code control systems - in particular, I have not read of any serious failure in subversion.

The limitations of VSS are because of its design. Even MS realises this, and has (AFAIK) dropped VSS as a product and now has a new source code control system.

For my use, I think it is important that I can trust my source code control system. There is no point in using it if I can't be sure of going back to previous versions reliably. That doesn't mean it is not possible to have a reliable and solid VSS setup (just as it is possible to have a windows NT server running for years without a reboot, no matter what people say - you just have to treat it nicely). I know of people who have used VSS for years without losing anything, although they don't particularly like the system. But the very fact that people think that using VSS for years without losing data is impressive or unusual would turn me against it.



.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Anyone solve the old "Initializing offline cache" problem?
    ... Do you have used the source code control system with your web projects, ... For VSS, you can try to delete the VSWEBCACHE directory; ... For PVCS, the IFC_COM.dll would cause the VS.NET IDE hangs. ...
    (microsoft.public.vc.ide_general)
  • Re: debug vs not debug different behavior.
    ... Stephanie Stowe wrote: ... Do you have it in VSS or some ... >>other source code control system, so maybe you can determine when it was ...
    (microsoft.public.vb.general.discussion)
  • Re: Visual source safe & Clear case
    ... VS 2003 stores its registry values in a different location ... I'm using Visual studio 6.0. ... I had installed VSS and Clear case simultaneously ... How can I change the default source code control? ...
    (microsoft.public.vstudio.sourcesafe)
  • Re: Effective strategy for using VSS in a development team?
    ... release to share among developers, one for the QA team, and one for the ... VSS is not a source code control system built for this. ... - Vault for source code control ...
    (microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp)
  • Re: Visual Source Safe
    ... > I've never used a source code control system of any kind before, ... > Does anyone know of a relatively simple tutorial on how to use VSS? ... VSS doesn't handle .frx files quite as well as other file types, ... the beginning - projects are relatively easy to rebuild/move/re-work later ...
    (microsoft.public.vb.general.discussion)