RE: Source Control

["Mitchell, Sue" <Sue.Mitchell@xxxxxxxxxx>]

We use VSS - have thousands of files, considerable sharing amongst books and
over 30 writers. And while, yes, VSS is not necessarily the *most* stable
source control system out there, we have found that with close monitoring
and strict rules we can prevent any major problems with the database. 

We do not allow multiple checking out of files, I do weekly analyzes of the
database and fix small problems right away instead of letting them build up,
only certain people have destroy privileges (to ensure they really do want
to delete a file), we have set up a folder structure which allows all
writers to know which file is the 'original' one from which to do all the
sharing (avoiding the possibility of spaghetti sharing). Additionally all
VSS maintenance is (MUST BE) done directly on the server it resides on.

I know some of our developers have switched over to Perforce and they are
very happy with it, but I do not know much about it (although I did hear
that it doesn't handle sharing of files all that well).

Sue
------------------------------------
Sue Mitchell
Writing Support Specialist
Cognos, Inc
613-738-1338 x5461


-----Original Message-----
From: Lee Creighton [mailto:Lee.Creighton@sas.com]
Sent: Friday, April 19, 2002 1:32 PM
Cc: framers@omsys.com
Subject: Source Control


A message on this list reminded me of a problem we are going to have to
rectify soon.

For source control, our developers use Microsoft's Visual Source Safe. So,
by default, we are using it too. We have an enormous amount of
documentation, and a huge help system. All in all, we're talking about
thousands of files that are shared among the four technical writers in my
group.

Source safe is really not up to the task, giving us frequent crashes and
database corruptions. So, we are looking for another source control system.
Our Linux guy is pro-CVS. I hear that Framemaker 7 may have some sort of
source control system as well.

Anyone have a recommendation for us? Since the developers are changing, we
have the opportunity to change ourselves, including the option of using
something totally different than the developers.

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