OS/2 Shareware BBS: 14 Text/14-Text.zip/srcsafe.zip/SRCSAF.ZIP/SRCSAFE.TXT

Text File | 1993-11-15 | 6KB | 108 lines

SourceSafe
Project Oriented Version Control

SourceSafe by One Tree Software is a "project oriented version control
system."  SourceSafe doesn't try to write your program for you: it takes care
of your maintenance and tracking responsibilities, freeing you up to
concentrate on programming.

More specifically, using SourceSafe can enhance your development productivity
in six principal ways.

1. Team Coordination

When more than one person is working together on a project, how do you keep
track of who is doing what, when?  If several developers attempt to modify
the same file at the same time, they might wind up overwriting each other's
changes!  That can be disastrous.  But policies to prevent it can be costly,
inefficient, and difficult to enforce.

Unless, that is, you use SourceSafe.  With SourceSafe, each developer "checks
out" a file before modifying it.  Other developers still have access to the
file, but they cannot check it out for modification.  When the programmer is
finished working on the file, he updates it back into SourceSafe, making the
latest version immediately available to everybody.  This simple system
requires no time-consuming overhead, but it does provide an error-proof
guarantee that one person will be modifying one file at one time.

2. File and Project Histories

The name "version control" refers specifically to a product's ability to
store old versions of a file.  If you've updated a file ten times, SourceSafe
can give you the most recent version, or any of the previous nine.  And
SourceSafe's advanced "reverse delta" storage mechanism ensures that storing
all these versions doesn't use too much disk space: because SourceSafe stores
only the changes you make each version, and then uses those changes to
reconstruct old versions of your files on demand.

But SourceSafe goes beyond simple file histories, and tracks the history of
entire projects as well!  Suppose a customer with version 2.00b of your
program finds a bug.  No problem--you used a SourceSafe "project label" to
tag version 2.00b, and now SourceSafe can give you back exactly the files
that made up the project at that time.  Just build your program and start
hunting!

3. Shared Code

If you write a number of programs around a common base of "core code"; if you
customize one program for different customers' needs; or if you write in an
object-oriented language such as C++; then you know the power of reusable
code.  You can add a feature to one shared module, and immediately get the
benefit in five different programs.

But you also know the organizational issues: you have to remember what
programs are using this file, and propagate every change to all the necessary
places!  That's why SourceSafe has built-in support for Shared files.  You
tell SourceSafe that your program wants to Share certain files from another
program, and SourceSafe remembers that link.  When you modify a file, it
automatically propagates the change to all the projects that Share that file.
 And if you need to know which programs have been affected, SourceSafe gives
you a report; so you always know what to recompile.

4. Accessible Interfaces

You've got programs to write, deadlines to meet and customers to worry about.
 The last thing you need from your version control system is one more thing
to worry about, a day-long installation process and tedious employee training
sessions.

That's why SourceSafe is as easy to use as it is powerful.  Powerful
installation systems and administrative interfaces mean you can have
SourceSafe fully installed and ready for all your users in half an hour.  An
elegant interface patterned after the Windows File Manager, a straightforward
command-line with no obscure parameters required for common actions, and
extensive on-line help, mean that your users may never even use SourceSafe's
detailed User's Manual.  And best of all, the interface and command-line
syntax are the same across all platforms, so you only have to learn
SourceSafe once!

5. Multi-Platform Support

If you're among the increasing number of companies who write one program for
many different operating systems, you have a new problem--you need to
maintain one centralized database of code, with full access from all your
systems.  That's why the SourceSafe versions for DOS, Windows 3.1,
Windows/NT, OS/2, the Macintosh, and UNIX, are all 100% compatible.  You can
check out a file on your Macintosh, and your change will be reflected on
another user's Windows screen.  And cross-platform issues such as filename
length, end-of-line characters, OS/2 extended attributes and the Macintosh
resource file are handled by SourceSafe thoroughly, intelligently, and (most
important) transparently.

6. The One Tree Guarantee

There is no way for you to know how SourceSafe can improve your development
environment until you try it.  That's why One Tree Software always gives you
the guarantees you need to feel absolutely secure.  Like free, unlimited
technical support to all registered users, and a reasonably priced
maintenance plan to keep you up to date with the latest version of
SourceSafe.

It all adds up to a simple philosophy: you need long-term solutions to
important development questions, and those solutions depend on the company
that stands behind the product.  One Tree Software is 100% committed to
meeting all your needs, and to providing a level of customer service and
support which matches the high level of quality in our products themselves.

For more information about SourceSafe, contact One Tree Software today!