5 ms·

Not trolling, but seriously, is there really a significant number of developers out there who aren't using any form of version control?

cstuder 16y ago
Try thinking back: What did you read first, a tutorial on a programming language or a tutorial on a version control system?
- warren_s 16y ago
  There was no version control available to me when I started programming BASIC on a BBC Model B in 1987. :) It's a bit of a different story in 2010. I would sincerely hope that anyone who aspires to be a professional developer would be aware that there is a thing called a version control system, and that using one is a Very Good Idea for all but the most trivial of programming tasks.
  - dagw 16y ago
    Many people who write code never aspired to be professional developers. Lots of people started by just trying pick up enough to quickly solve a small problem they where having while doing the thing they where actually interested in, then someone noticed that they knew how to program a bit, one thing leads to another and next thing they know they're spending most of their time programming.
storborg 16y ago
There may not be experienced developers who aren't using version control, but there are new developers all the time, especially on sexy platforms like Cocoa.
thibaut_barrere 16y ago
Seriously, yes, a lot... I setup SVN two months ago at a client, at my request. Once you're used to something so fundamental, it's hard to imagine people won't use it as well :)
- loewenskind 16y ago
  If it was two months ago, why did you start them out with obsolete technology? The only reason I can think of to have SVN today is legacy situations which you obviously weren't in.
  - warren_s 16y ago
    Hey, at least they're using something. There's no need to waste time on a religious war within the church of version control, when there are non-believers who must be shown the light.
    - loewenskind 16y ago
      >Hey, at least they're using something. Bad attitude in my opinion. At some point they will have to do a costly and complicated migration to a modern system, and that could have been completely avoided by simply using a modern system to begin with. >There's no need to waste time on a religious war within the church of version control, when there are non-believers who must be shown the light. The only religious behavior I see here is claiming that a two systems are equivalent when they clearly are not.
  - thibaut_barrere 16y ago
    It's obsolete only for a small part of IT (us!), it's definitely not obsolete for them (and a lot of other shops). Three main reasons: - windows support is still far from brilliant for git - even a non-technical user can understand and use tortoisesvn in 2 hours - SVN revisions are really easy to understand Don't get me wrong, I'm using git in a lot of places (including my own projects), but most of my non-technical clients are on svn. EDIT: just so you know, I still know one company (a startup, mind you!) that uses CVS.
    - loewenskind 16y ago
      >- windows support is still far from brilliant for git It's not that bad, certainly not much worse than SVN itself on windows. >- even a non-technical user can understand and use tortoisesvn in 2 hours 2 hours? A non-technical person can understand everything about e.g. Git that they're likely to need in less than that. >- SVN revisions are really easy to understand Not sure what you mean here. 1783. Is that somehow easier to understand than an equally meaningless hash key? At least in Git you could describe the version by the checkin text. >but most of my non-technical clients are on svn I think you're really doing them a disservice with this. As soon as they have any kind of accidental corruption I think you're going to be sorely missing Git's recovery capabilities and ability to mathmatically prove you're working with the version you think you're working with.

cstuder 16y ago

Try thinking back: What did you read first, a tutorial on a programming language or a tutorial on a version control system?

warren_s 16y ago
There was no version control available to me when I started programming BASIC on a BBC Model B in 1987. :) It's a bit of a different story in 2010. I would sincerely hope that anyone who aspires to be a professional developer would be aware that there is a thing called a version control system, and that using one is a Very Good Idea for all but the most trivial of programming tasks.
- dagw 16y ago
  Many people who write code never aspired to be professional developers. Lots of people started by just trying pick up enough to quickly solve a small problem they where having while doing the thing they where actually interested in, then someone noticed that they knew how to program a bit, one thing leads to another and next thing they know they're spending most of their time programming.

storborg 16y ago

There may not be experienced developers who aren't using version control, but there are new developers all the time, especially on sexy platforms like Cocoa.

thibaut_barrere 16y ago

Seriously, yes, a lot... I setup SVN two months ago at a client, at my request. Once you're used to something so fundamental, it's hard to imagine people won't use it as well :)

loewenskind 16y ago
If it was two months ago, why did you start them out with obsolete technology? The only reason I can think of to have SVN today is legacy situations which you obviously weren't in.
- warren_s 16y ago
  Hey, at least they're using something. There's no need to waste time on a religious war within the church of version control, when there are non-believers who must be shown the light.
  - loewenskind 16y ago
    >Hey, at least they're using something. Bad attitude in my opinion. At some point they will have to do a costly and complicated migration to a modern system, and that could have been completely avoided by simply using a modern system to begin with. >There's no need to waste time on a religious war within the church of version control, when there are non-believers who must be shown the light. The only religious behavior I see here is claiming that a two systems are equivalent when they clearly are not.
- thibaut_barrere 16y ago
  It's obsolete only for a small part of IT (us!), it's definitely not obsolete for them (and a lot of other shops). Three main reasons: - windows support is still far from brilliant for git - even a non-technical user can understand and use tortoisesvn in 2 hours - SVN revisions are really easy to understand Don't get me wrong, I'm using git in a lot of places (including my own projects), but most of my non-technical clients are on svn. EDIT: just so you know, I still know one company (a startup, mind you!) that uses CVS.
  - loewenskind 16y ago
    >- windows support is still far from brilliant for git It's not that bad, certainly not much worse than SVN itself on windows. >- even a non-technical user can understand and use tortoisesvn in 2 hours 2 hours? A non-technical person can understand everything about e.g. Git that they're likely to need in less than that. >- SVN revisions are really easy to understand Not sure what you mean here. 1783. Is that somehow easier to understand than an equally meaningless hash key? At least in Git you could describe the version by the checkin text. >but most of my non-technical clients are on svn I think you're really doing them a disservice with this. As soon as they have any kind of accidental corruption I think you're going to be sorely missing Git's recovery capabilities and ability to mathmatically prove you're working with the version you think you're working with.