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Versioning of files

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Beth UK:
I agree with Carol on this:

it would be really good if FH made a baseline backup of the file the first time it is opened
--- End quote ---

Carol Haynes:
I have posted this request on their "Wish List" forum - be interesting  to see if there are any takers.

nontroppo:
Another big  :-* to FileHamster. I was a beta tester since the beginning, and the Mogware guys are incredibly friendly and open to suggestions. They are really passionate about FH and that is really the most you can ask of a developer.

I used to use the free CS-RCS from component software for quite a while:

http://www.componentsoftware.com/Products/freetool.htm

Also pretty nice, but FH wins on simplicity...

tinjaw:
Now I want to hear from tinjaw.  Tell me why I am an idiot for not doing version control the way you do it.
-Ralf Maximus (October 17, 2007, 09:25 PM)
--- End quote ---

Come on now, I didn't call you an idiot.  :-* All joking aside, you can use whatever you want. I doesn't bother me one bit. However, by using your own homegrown system, you will never get any of the benefits of using a class of tool that has been used by millions of software developers and built for the express purpose of solving the problem of version control. Your tool may do what you need perfectly, but if you want to do one iota more, you will need to add that to your system, and the choice you make may limit what you can or cannot do when you need yet another iota of functionality. However, chances are very high, that if you don't know what a version control system can do for you, you don't need one. It also means that you will need to learn how to use one if you ever want to work on a piece of software with anyone besides yourself, because working without version control when more than a single developer work on a project is, to all intents and purposes, impossible.

Ralf Maximus:
Come on now, I didn't call you an idiot.

--- End quote ---

No, *I* called me an idiot and put the words in your mouth. :-)

What I may have failed to mention (or did, way back in the mists of time -- I forget) is that I used to use VSS.  Actually, our whole team did.  For three years I lived and died alongside VSS in a six-member development team.  We used it to manage source.  The QA testers used VSS to annotate modules that passed or failed, and management used it to track the status of projects by reading the notes.

For all my whining about VSS's sucktitude, it actually saved us more than cursed us.  The occasional crash or weirdness was worth the end result.  And I KNOW there was no way we could have gotten projects out the door without it.

When I started my business, I began using VSS to manage my own one-developer project, and rapidly became disgusted at how little it returned for my devotion.  I'd forgotten we had a guy in our team who spent 1/4 of his time as the VSS administrator.  A lot of the features I remembered liking in the 6-person environment simply didn't apply here: I rarely forked a project, and almost never rolled anything back entirely.  "Checking out" a module was silly since I was the only guy here, and I had no QA team or managers.

I threw it out and developed my own mechanism, using Office, WinZip, and some batch files.  Two years ago I ditched the batch files and started using SyncBack.

Granted VSS is a pig, and the version we used was an earlier one.  I *know* versioning tools have evolved since then.  If I had some spare time I would love to evaluate the latest crop of tools (one of my favorite pasttimes: downloading cool new stuff) and actually learn what I am missing.

I am NOT saying "these packages suck, my system wins".  I'm simply saying that in my case some custom-built tools fit my workflow better than what I've seen so far.

Anyway, thanks for taking the time to respond.  I appreciate your patience with me.

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