Re: Source Control a/k/a Collaboration, Configuration Management

[hedley_finger@xxxxxxxxxxx]

George:


> As our development group migrates from SourceSafe to ClearCase, our doc
> group is encouraged to do likewise.

ClearCase cannot give you anything useful that you cannot get with VSS.
Any product that has a 60 mm (2.5 in) thick Reference Manual is vastly
overengineered.  You will be weeping tears of blood ere long.

> - Under ClearCase, the structure of FrameMaker files are not stored as
> deltas of change but as complete serial replacements.

They cannot be stored as base file plus deltas in any version management
system.  If space is your worry, save to MIF then check in.  Someone else
on the list tried this and (from memory) after 32 check-in/check-out cycles
the files had only grown twice as large.

> - Under FrameMaker,  you need to either work on chapters in isolation,
> check out the whole book (not CC dynamically) with all its components,
> or accept the raft of errors that the read-only files generate (actually
> ClearCase prohibits) when they cannot be rewritten.

> As a result, if you like to update the book to see the TOC,  index, and
> page changes as you go along,  you create collaboration logjams and,
> inevitably,  repository bulk as you check all these back in.

Under VSS, you can Get Latest Version of your entire fileset (so you will
have graphics and can generate the Index and TOC).  Then check out just the
chapter you intend to work on.  If you try to check back in the (writable)
but not checked-out files, VSS warns you.

After check-in, remember to blow away the graphics files, or have some
process for ensuring that team members are warned when graphics change.

> A feature that one might expect FrameMaker would offer would be an
> "off-line update" so that you could see in a book which files are write
> protected, edit only that those that are checked out, yet  generate a
> temp book to a work directory. But instead I seem to be building
> processes that are workarounds on the constraints of these high-end
> tools.

When you check in, use the Remove Local Copy option.  That minimises the
chance of opening a local read-only file only to discover that you cannot
save it because someone else has checked it out.  Make it a rule that
people
must ALWAYS open a file by double-clicking it in the VSS Explorer window.
First, they will see if a file is checked out or not, and who currently
owns
it.  Second, if somehow they manage to double-click the file anyway, VSS
warns
them appropriately.

> If  more than one person touches a book in process,  you are dealing
> with signing out files to serialise changes while trying to appreciate
> the dynamism of collaborative teamwork on books.

VSS also warns you that a file about to be checked in is unchanged from the
version in the database, and asks whether you want a new version created.
You can specify "No All" and VSS only checks in CHANGED files and creates a
new
version.  ClearCase creates a new version regardless, causing repository
bloat.
(Although somewhere in that 60 mm slab there is doubtless a way to program
ClearCase to behave like VSS.)

VSS's parsimonious version creation also makes it a good option for backing
up
the day's work.  Just select the project at the top of the tree for
recursive
check-in with immediate check-out, and you now have a local copy, a copy in
the
repository, and if IT are doing their job, a copy on the daily back-up
tape.

> What works?

VSS.  You will get lost in ClearCase version space.  And VSS does neat
drag-and-
drop thingys and project v. local folders reconciliation for painless
adding of
new files to the fileset.


[Windows 2000, FrameMaker 6.0p405, FrameScript 1.27C01, Enhance 2.03,
Acrobat 4.05.2, mif2go 31r25, IXgen 5.5.h]

Regards,
Hedley

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Hedley Finger
Technical Communications/Technical communicator and FrameMaker mentor
MYOB Australia <http://www.myob.com.au/>
P.O. box 371   Blackburn VIC 3130   Australia
<mailto:hedley_finger@myob.com.au>
Tel. +61 3 9894 0945
Mob. +61 412 461 558


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