Even back on svn I tended to use svk (not in offline mode, just for workable merging) and branch for everything - keeping to a rule of "it compiles? commit it"

Even back on svn I tended to use svk (not in offline mode, just for workable merging) and branch for everything - keeping to a rule of "it compiles? commit it" and then only caring about everything working when you merge saves data loss and has the advantage of keeping your thought process, even when that process turned out to be wrong. CVS? I think I've forgotten how I used that, thankfully.