[NTLUG:Discuss] Comparison of CVS and SrcSafe

[Kevin Brannen]

Chris Cox wrote:
> 
> cbbrowne at godel.brownes.org wrote:
> ...snip...
> >
> > Chris Cox is likely one of the NTLUGgers most competent to comment
> > on the comparative advantages of SCCS versus RCS...
> 

[a lot of good points snipped]

> 
> Neither tools is ideal.  I like SCCS over RCS mainly for
> it's easy embedding...however, I note that it's just
> commercial Unix....AT&T is too proud (?) to release
> the source and make it more widely available.  So, from
> a "free" side, RCS is the defacto winner.  Contrary
> to what some may say, RCS is not a better SCCS.  RCS
> did things differently....there are pros and cons
> to both systems.  I truly wish someone would write
> a better SCCS (with full backward compatability).  IMHO,
> RCS is the tool which looks more or less like a hack
> in its implementation.  At least I feel like I'm using
> a Unix utility when I use SCCS.  RCS looks like what
> a non-Unix person might write for their first Unix
> project.

When I started on Unix, I only had SCCS available, and didn't learn RCS
until later; so my preference of SCCS over RCS might be more a matter of
that's what I was first familiar with.  OTOH, I can also say that
technically, I prefer the branching/locking model (SCCS) over "everyone
get a copy and we'll magically merge and make it all OK later"
philosophy (RCS).  All too often, the "magic and OK" part only comes
after much "wailing and gnashing of teeth" (for any project with more
than about 3 people).

George, thanks for the pointer to CSSC.  I'll have to go check it out.

> 
> Just some thoughts....BEA uses CVS and Perforce (just FYI),
> Chris

A few months back, I got the eval copy of Perforce to see what it was
like.  And it "ate" my CVS tree!  It literally, removed all my ,v files
and just left the dirs!  Via backups, and having a copy of the current
source in my "sandbox", I was able to reconstruct my CVS tree; mostly. 
CVS didn't like coming back to life in that fashion.  I didn't lose any
files, but some of them changed location (to the Attic for those
familiar with CVS).  I'm quite "ticked" [feel free to substitute a
stronger word] with Perforce; and CVS for that matter too but for other
reasons.

I'm currently checking out Aegis (thanks again Seth for the pointer!). 
Would it worth my effort to post a write-up about it here when I'm done
looking it over carefully?  Is there already an Aegis guru already here
who could do the same (and maybe help me with few a detailed questions?
:-)  If I can get over 2 or 3 hurdles, I think CVS will be out and Aegis
will be in.  [and maybe the BitKeeper vapor will have coalesced by then
into something I can evaluate :-) ]  FWIW, Aegis can use either SCCS or
RCS as its underlying revision control tool.

Kevin