use make and version control system for every project?

[sashan]

AK wrote:

>Hi, I recently read an advice here that one should try to use make and
>version control system even if you're the only one working on the
>program. Is that a good advice? How many of you do that?
>
> Thanks,
>
>  -AK
>  
>
Ever since I was introduced to revision control I've used it for 
individual projects. I've used/use SourceSafe, Bitkeeper, cvs and 
subversion.  I recommend that you use some form of revision control for 
the following reasons:

1) It's a good habit to get into. If you eventually end up on a team 
you'll use revision control so practicing with an individual project 
isn't going to hurt.
2) Backups - a revision control system becomes your back up tool.
3) Difftools - sometimes you have make a change to a file and a few days 
latter a bug apears in your code. With revision control you can do a 
diff between the current file and any previous version to see what 
change introduced the bug.
4) Tags/Labels - When you're satisfied with the progress of your project 
you can label the repository as say version 1.0. This marks all the 
files in the repository as version 1.0. Then at a later date you can 
easily go back to the source tree as it was when you finished version 1.0.

I worked for a short time with a company that didn't use revision 
control (and these were people who were meant to have 5 to 10 or so 
years in IT industry experience.) Their source tree was simply put on a 
shared server. The number of developers working on that tree at the same 
time ranged from 1 to 4 so it was manageable, but it still sucked. I 
tried to explain how to use sourcesafe and setup a server to the guy in 
charge of development but  I don't think he got it. They were all VB 
programmers so I guess that explains their incompetence.

Personally I use Bitkeeper for most of my work now. Since I work 
sometimes at home and sometimes at uni it's nice to be able to store my 
code/thesis on a server that I can access from anywhere. It also saves 
me having to maintain backups. I'm also using Subversion for a part-time 
contract I'm working on. I occasionally use cvs since I have a little 
neglected project on  sourceforge. I've haven't used sourcesafe in a 
while. I recommend using Bitkeeper or Subversion because they can track 
renames of files. cvs can't and iirc neither can sourcesafe.

-- 
sashan
http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~sgov008/