Replacement for Visual Source Safe?

Thanks for the prompt response.  I went through the sites.  I would like to see some more tools.

Any help?

As far as i know, most people use either VSS or CVS.  

Leon

How are you buying the VB licenses?  We bought a 5-seat license for VB Enterprise and it came with VSS licenses for 5 users.

mlmcc

Due to cost cutting, I cannot buy VB licenses.  I am looking for remedy made VB tool with SQL server backend.

I see.  You aren't trying to control a software development project but rather you are trying to control a set of files so they can only be updates by 1 person at a time.

Is it feasible to have 1 or 2 people acting as librarians.  They would do the check out and check in and control who has a document.  In that way you could use a single copy of VSS or Perforce as mentione dabove by leavinmate

mlmcc

That's good idea. but i need to give access to all the 50 people and NOT just one or two.

Hope I'm clear.

I realize what you want but an interim solution might be to have them check it out and copy the checked out file to a common directory where the desired or asking user can manipulate it.

mlmcc

Hi,

Sorry to say (and barge into the discussion) but the setup you are sugesting mlmcc is the road to disaster. I have seen this kind of controlled editing up close and personal and I have seen it fail. Unless you have strict disipline and severe punishment on failure (like being whiped on the public square in front of all your colleque's) to comply to the rules, it will not work. Mind you, this failed with only three people proding at the source, not 50.

In my humble opinion, any development team of more then 2 people should have a system like VSS or CVS in place. VSS being the expensive Microsoft server-side version, CVS being the free open-source local-side version. The difference is subtle but very distinct. With VSS you have a view on the file on the server, what ever happens to it, you will be notified. Unlike CVS, wich will copy the file to a local working directory and only sends back the changes that were made, merging them with changes others have made.

With both programs you can "lock" a file so it can't be edited by another person. VSS does it on it's own, CVS has to be told that it can't give out a certain file. The functionality is the same and would alow you to accomplish what you are trying to do here for the nominal fee of some set-up time and a low-performance server.

This does impose another set of rules though, but failure to adhere to them is not catastrophic as in the previous sugested setup. We have been running CVS for over 2 years now and it has performed supurbly. Not a single second of down-time, not more last minute changes being lost by someone accidently overwriting your changes, etc. Our repository contains the sourcecode of about 30 programs, on an very old server (predates '99). R&D, implementation and documentation of procedures took about three days. It has saved me ten times more time in repairing mistakes due to overwriting and accidental erasing of work.

The tools in order of appearence:
CVSNT: This is the server side deamon that facilitates the repository. It comes with full integration with SSPI authentication, which means you can protect the repository with ACL's on the directories. URL for more documentation and How-to's: http://www.cvsnt.org

WinCVS: This is the client that comunicates with the server to retrieve the files. It is a GUI windows program that is easy (in my humble opinion) to use once you get used to it. URL for more documentation and how-to's: http://cvsgui.sourceforge.net

Also, these two tools aren't the only two around but the are very near to the original UNIX scripts that date back to the early ages of programming.

In my closing argument, it may take a little time to get used to any version control system, but in the end it's worth the time and effort spend. It is no fun to see a day's work destroyed by a simple "Y" on the dumb question of overwriting. Any comments, questions, remarks, flames: happy to hear them ;)

Grtz.©

D.

daffyduck14mil
I totally agree with you but he says there as no $ to purchase more.  If CVS is free for that many users, I agree he should use it.

As a caution, even with VSS or CVS in place you need strict adherence to the process and discipline to use it.  

mlmcc

mlmcc,

CVS has no cost what so ever in terms of the almighty hard-cash. It only takes a bit of time to install and configure it. At least we all agree that any versioning system needs a sound process and strict discipline.

At our company we have a big savings-pig where in case of failure to comply with the rules you need to deposit a certain amount. At the end of the year (or somewhere in between) we'll have a great time ;)

Grtz.©

D.