Branching files in a version repository: any war stories?

[hedley_finger@xxxxxxxxxxx]

All:

We use Visual SourceSafe (VSS) to manage the versions of our documentation.

Accounting being similar throughout the world, we use a single fileset for
all user guides for all products intended for all markets.  Fortunately, up
until now, the release cycles of our products are sufficiently staggered
that a writer can check out the entire fileset and retain ownership until
the user guide is released for the current market and product.

So I have not had to face the necessity to branch our files, so that two
writers can work independently on different user guides, later merging all
the changes back into the main branch.  But now we have to deliver two user
guides for different markets within a couple of weeks; there is just not
enough time for sequential development.

VSS will not allow you to branch and merge native FrameMaker binary files.
What it excels at is branching and merging text (code) files, as you would
imagine for a programmers' tool.

I have conducted tests with two MIF files containing about a page of
material, which exports as about 9000 lines of MIF statements.  Allowing
VSS to automatically merge the files together produced a combined file that
FrameMaker opened without complaint and had the appropriate insertions,
changes, and deletions.

You can also use a visual inspection mode in VSS, which thoughtfully allows
you to skip from diff to diff.  But even this will be tedious when a real
chapter probably represents somewhere in the neighbourhood of 360 000 MIF
statements.

VSS, left to its own devices, automatically merges DELETIONS and INSERTIONS
without query, where these can be single MIF lines or groups of MIF lines
present in one file but not the other.  But it tends to query CONFLICTS,
which appear to be CHANGES: lines that exist in both files at the same
position, are preceded and followed by lines identical in both files, but
which are different from each other.  In practice, CONFLICTS mainly turn
out to be different hash Id numbers in <Unique ...>, <Tbl ..>, etc.
statements, and other identifiers and pointers.

Questions:
@    So how good is VSS's automatic merge, and
     can you trust it to not make a mistake?
@    How good is VSS's lookahead to separate true insertions and
     deletions from restructuring of a file.  (FrameMaker's own
     compare utility is not too good at this.)
@    Is telling VSS to override conflicts, that is copy source
     lines to target lines, likely to produce duplicate hash IDs
     and other anomalies which FrameMaker will not be able to resolve?
@    If there are any former Frame Technology people still reading this
     list, can they throw any light on whether MIF was intended to be
     managed in version repositories?  Any tips?  (Trish
     Mudgett, where are you when we need you?)
@    Is anybody currently branching and merging MIF in a repository
     and has some useful tips and cautionary war stories?
@    Are there any tools for saving entire books to MIF?

If the worst comes to the worst, we can always use FrameMaker's comparison
utility and tediously delete the text marked with the Deleted condition and
uncondition text marked with the Inserted condition.  I would just like to
know if there is an Easier Way.

[Windows 2000, FrameMaker 6.0p405, FrameScript 1.27C01, Enhance 2.03,
Acrobat 4.05.2, mif2go 31u33, WebWorks Publisher 7.0, IXgen 5.5.h, HTML
Help Workshop 4.74 build 8702.0, HTML Help 1.31]

Regards,
Hedley

P.S.  This email has also been blind copied to experts with some experience
in version management, so if you receive a duplicate via a mailing list, my
apologies.

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Hedley Finger
Adobe Certified Expert, FrameMaker 5.5.x
Technical Communications/Best Practice Mentor
MYOB Australia Pty Ltd  <http://www.myob.com.au>
P.O. box 371   Blackburn VIC 3130   Australia
12 Wesley Court   Tally Ho Business Park   East Burwood 3151   Australia
Tel. +61 3 9222 9992 x 7421  Fax. +61 3 9222 9880  Mob. +61 412 461 558
<mailto:hedley_finger@myob.com.au>

Copyright (C) MYOB Limited 2002


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