Subversion leaps giantly forward. Not only some opensource people are using it, now a lot of large companies try to make the switch. And I do not speak of some old fashioned CVS-users how just try new things: There are companies outside which will abandon their commercial version management systems for subversion.
I think the main reason for this is subversions model of representing version control:
At the end users are most comfortable with the most common computer metaphor:
the file(-system)
Nearly all users now how to copy, rename move and delete files. I think all developers know.
Subversion breaks not with this metaphor, it just enhances it with a new dimension: time. This makes the learning curve so shallow. You do not need anything to now about branches, tags or anything else. Just this: a commit saves your versions into the repository and creates a new revision an update will get changes from your coworkers into your workingcopy.
Of course there are voices against this simple model: some people think it is a problem that svn doesn't support native tags or branches but I think as long as you can map this usecases on your filesystem more people will understand what is happening. So if your branches/tags are just plain directories, it is much easier to grasp than an abstract concept for people who do not work day to day with version control.
Monday, November 26, 2007
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